Holding Hands With Your Ghost,
A Place Far AwayFucking hell this is good. The APFA kids sent me this CD a bit back and it got lost in amongst a pile of press releases and I re-discovered it while tidying up the other day. Thank God I did.
While I've been critical of bands recently for re-hashing that very trendy 'emo' sound, there are bands that continue to freshen up a tired genre with plenty of fire in their bellies. You can spot the bands who are in it for the 'fame' and the girls a mile off; they're the bands that are completely and utterly passionless, just going through the motions. But then there are bands like A Place Far Away, bands that are seemingly on fire, throwing themselves around and having their emotions seep out of every pore. They remind me of Alexisonfire and very early A Static Lullaby, mixing up the dynamics between the aggressive shouty parts and then more serene singing in a way that doesn't come across as contrived or predictable.
Then throw in the fact that 'Holding Hands With Your Ghost' is a concept EP that looks at the band's faith and questions their existence and you have something more than your average band. Each of the five songs, plus the intro, is great, showcasing a lot of different styles in a short space of time, yet not sounding in any way messy. 'The Titan's Curiousity' reminds me a little bit of 'Say Hello To Sunshine'-era Finch too, biting hard during the verses yet maintaining a strong melody in the choruses, while 'Your Embrace Escapes' reminds me of A Static Lullaby when they were good.
The music A Place Far Away play has been done so often - and in many cases recently, badly - that it would be easy to dismiss this lot as just another wannabe fashioncore band and be done with it. But scratch the surface and you have one very, very talented and exciting young band indeed.
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