Oh The Horror

Hands Pressed Against The Glass (Play The Assassin)
by Clint Goulden

It’s hard to dictate what passes for metal these days, but I have to give iTunes credit for giving it its best shot. I suppose anything that includes some melody with a second poor son-of-a-bitch coerced into the screaming role if “you guys want to make it?” would be where the line is drawn.

In all honestly, Hands Pressed Against The Glass is a lot better than some post-hardcore out there, and surprisingly, Jersey’s Oh The Horror give us ten tracks that vary from the aforementioned description to blue-stagelight and audience lighter-holding (or ahem, cell phone-holding) fodder when they open for My Chemical Romance. It’s not at all bad, and they might even have me believing they’re onto something at times, like when “Protocols” makes you look at the track listing more than once. But this only comes after a sea of regurgitated screeching has come to a seize.

“A Song To Close Doors To” should be definitely be spun, and there are plenty of other slick breaks and Misfits riffs that deserve some second chances. It must be a Jersey thing.

The influences run aplenty – spacey slow jams and Chino Moreno yelps aflood – is when OTH seem to be at their best show. Unfortunately, this record is coming after even From First To Last have turned a corner, and they too were come latelys. I’ll be the first to say there’s a lot of potential here; it’s just a matter of doing something with it. Please do.
(www.playtheassassin.com)