In Pursuit Of Something Interesting: Double Grave's "Empty Hands"

For this weeks installment of "In Pursuit of Something Interesting," we are keeping it local and looking at Double Grave's Empty Hands EP. I stumbled across a video taken by UnderCurrentMLPS of the band playing at a club in Minneapolis and was stuck by the bands mix of sludgy noise rock and pop hooks. An easy comparison can be made between Double Grave and the legendary indie rock band Dinosaur Jr. Both are heavy, noisy, and poppy all at the same time.

Jumping into "Empty Hands" the listener is greeted with dissonant chords soaked in reverb and served up with some punchy drum beats. "Rapture," the opening track, had an unexpected breakdown in the middle of it, which was great. The song itself is only one minute and 28 seconds long. So, the amount of sonic and structural diversity found in it is mildly impressive. The one critique I have with the song is the vocal production. The vocals sort of float through the ether of track. It's hard to tell if they are there to serve as an extra sonic texture, or if the vocals are meant to actually tell a story. This issue is remedied quickly with the next track "Deadend," which is all about being caught in the middle of different stages of life.

Double Grave programed this EP to alternate between "traditional" songs and short punk bursts of energy. The first and third tracks fail to break the two minute mark while the second and fourth tracks both exceed three minutes. It's almost like the band compiled two singles with a short A-side and a longer B-side. The difference in time wouldn't really make a huge difference in a full-length LP, but in a short EP it seems a little odd. However, this is a tiny detail that really doesn't effect Empty Hands.

Overall, I'd recommend this EP. It doe not over stay its welcome at just under ten minutes. Listening to it, I definitely wanted more so I hope there is another record in the works.

Empty Hands is out via Sad Cactus. You can find it on Bandcamp, iTunes, and Spotify. You can also watch the video for the track "Laetitia" below.