Idle Hands - Mana

To say I heard about Idle Hands and their debut LP here via a little bit of underground hype would be an understatement. As long as a month ago I was hearing the most zealous praise (from those with advance copies) for this album as the undisputed album of the year that no other album would be likely to beat. I feel like at this point it’s probably pretty predictable from my intro sentences how I’m feeling about an album when I’m bringing up how much underground metal fawns over an album, and yes, once again, I’m not seeing it this time either. I know bringing up my view in the context of its contrast to other metalheads’ is probably getting old, but I do so mostly to offer up the grain of salt myself when I’m falling in what I’m seeing as the critical minority. It’s not a personal or professional (I’m not professional here) mandate by any means, I just want to provide context for how other people are feeling about an album, I don’t want to get hung up on it, and I’m even tired of being so frequently against the grain with the metal underground at this point myself too. But the way people have been just foaming at the mouth over this album has had me way more perplexed than the usual cases when I disagree with such mad adoration. So what are these people making such a big deal about?

Idle Hands are a relatively young four-piece from Portland, Oregon whose members united with a good deal of experience from other bands within their local scene. They released a short EP last year, but this debut full-length has certainly been the big attention-grabber, and an efficient and effective one at that. As any metal paleontologist could probably predict from their sharp, clean, spiderweb-laden logo, the band play a very traditional style of metal with plenty of gothic influences strewn all throughout. And as far as I can tell, that rather meager style combination is what is blowing minds left and right. And I dig the style too, but this album is definitely not near the first or the best to do it.

The band seem very focused on maintaining their aesthetic on this album to the point where it sounds like it’s a constant struggle for them to do so. They have the basics down, and frontman Gabriel Franco’s uncannily Volbeat-esque vocal style does fit well with the sound of this album, even if he sometimes honks on a bit like a horn through the sections where he uses very little of his range. There are also these brief grunts he frequently uses that get really annoying as the album wears on. But for real, the vocal resemblance to Michael Poulsen on the already Volbeat-ballad-ish “Jackie” was so unsettlingly uncanny. Especially those “woah"s.

The classic heavy metal guitar interplay between clean or distorted rhythm and the leads are certainly on of the album’s strengths, and the occasional blast beats and double-bass the drums provide like those on "Blade and the Will” and at the end of “Don’t Waste Your Time” are definitely refreshing amid the homogenously slow-droning compositions. Indeed, it’s the compositional department, which basic, repetitive, and dragging songs like the title track, “Nightfall”, and “Cosmic Overdrive” illustrate, where the band aren’t quite as accomplished as their disciples swear them to be, relying on the little novelty of their style to stretch them across typical structures and very little emotional potence or variety.

The band do seem to do a bit better with the faster and more energetic cuts like “Give Me to the Night” and “Double Negative”, even if they do shed a bit of gothic mystique for it, but it’s worth it for the dynamic these more directly metallic songs bring to the album’s cruise-control joyride through clean-cut traditional metal tropes.

I will say, though, that the patient build from the clean guitar intro on “It’ll Be Over Before You Know It” through intermittent drum hits provides a great segue into the soulful gothic power balladry of the expressive “A Single Solemn Rose”, probably one of the most consistently engaging moments on the album.

I definitely know the feeling of being so incredibly moved by something that seems like no big deal to the unimpressed. I know it’s a common phenomenon of fanboying Meshuggah: feeling moved at the very core of one’s being by something many others just don’t get that feeling from. And I am willing to offer that that may be what’s going on here with Idle Hands, and I’m on the other side of the table this time, but I have to at least express what my experience with this album has been. And it really hasn’t been bad. I know the hype train it rode in on probably did more of a detriment to my getting on to enjoying it, but it is still a strong debut album with good bones that I think just needs to be groomed a bit more. Mana is just very much a debut album and it seems the band still need some time to figure out their best approach to this style, and I don’t think the instant critical acclaim from some people is doing them any favors when there are definitely aspects of their craft that need honing, as most bands younger than even my measly blog often need. I think they have a good thing going for them and if they do focus on improving their signature sound, then they can certainly make the magnificent retro gothic metal masterpiece their ardent supporters think this album is.

Oh fuck, put it back in/10