Review Summary: A nearly picture perfect melody
SharpTone Records has been sucking up any band they can get their hands on nowadays. Some of those are well-known, and even infamous talents—Don Broco, Emmure, and We Came As Romans are some of the more notable names that have come under their grasp over the years. And then you have up and coming acts such as
Savage Hands. Many of SharpTone's up and comers have failed to get any big attention at all, which is a shame because
The Truth In Your Eyes is an incredible debut filled with the best elements of many of the acts of yesterday and today with their own flair of originality.
Vocalist Mike Garrow fuses many vocalists together; he's got a little bit of everyone—Nicholas Matthews of Get Scared and Noah Sebastian of Bad Omens are the most prominent, though he's got Oli Sykes, Andy Leo, and even Craig Mabbitt in him, with all negative qualities about all five greatly reduced to the point where it's a minor nuisance at worst—but he also has his own unique tone that makes him stand out amongst his peers. Guitarists Justin Hein and Nathan O'Brien provide some hard-hitting, amazing riffs and brooding tones adding to the dark atmosphere of the album, and bassist Jayvon Green is a breath of fresh air in a genre saturated with suffocated bass tones; you can actually hear him, and his bass playing provides an invaluable asset to the album, providing an extra boost to the rhythm section that this kind of music
desperately lacks. Drummer Alex Gacek adds the backbone that makes all the musical brilliance fall into piece damn near perfectly; his drum work is some of the interesting that i've heard in the past half-decade of rock in general—standout tracks "Demon" and "Washed Away" provide the best of what the band brings to the table, while tracks such as "Lonely", "Rotten Soul" and closer "Never Change" give us some of the most tasteful use of electronics in the genre, being used for ambiance rather than getting over-exaggerated to the point of pantomime absurdity.
Lyrically is where the only real flaws of the album pop up; for every flash of brilliance such as "If I'm a stranger to myself / If I can stand up in this hell of a home / Let the case go cold / Yellow tape unrolled / I'm just a rotten soul", there's a stinker of "Bloodshot eyes / They they open wide / I stare in the sunlight / I won't go blind". This is the department where Savage Hands needs to build upon; they can keep the standard verse/chorus/verse structure until the end of time for all I care, but at least do your damnedest to keep your words distinct from the same tropes done to death by every other band in the scene. The production, however, is actually
impressive for 2020 post-hardcore; every instrument gets a chance to breathe, and they compliment each other damn well. Nothing is drowned out, or even too low for that matter, and it's something that other bands in the scene really need to take notice of and do themselves.
The Truth In Your Eyes is another example of the underground crafting brilliance above the ashes of mainstream repetition and trite, and for that Savage Hands deserves huge commendation. The future is certainly a bright one for them.
