Music Review: Trap Them - Darker Handcraft

Twelve songs clocking in just over the 30-minute mark, Trap Them certainly know that it is better to get in and get out while the getting's good. Darker Handcraft, their third album, is concise, to the point, and poised to hand out a beat down. This music is in your face and wants to draw blood. Whether it is any good is a different case all together. You certainly can't take away their energy, aggression, or their ability to play as tightly as they do within the confined quarters of their sound, but I am not about to hand them the keys to my car. If you know what I mean.



Trap Them's music seems to exist at a crossroads of punk, hardcore, metal, grindcore, and garage rock. It never strays too far into any one genre, seemingly content enough to allow the aggression flow outwards from the genre convergence point. It is not like the theory where the universe will expand to a certain size before collapsing upon itself, creating another Big Bang. These guys are that convergence and the music is the explosion.

Unfortunately, for as intriguing an image as that is, I cannot say I care all that much about the album. It is far from terribly, I just fail to find it all that involving. The band is certainly wound up and primed to explode and the music is finely tuned, but it is the rare moment that he music grabs me.

Among the good are "Evictionaries" for its solid groove, "Sordid Earnings" for slowing things down with a solid atmosphere, and the closing "Scars Align" for evoking a bit of Entombed.

Still, when it comes right down to it, this is not bad, it just isn't for me.

Not Recommended.