Sounds Like Violence – With Blood on My Hands EP
Hard-charging indie rock with stellar songwriting.
With Blood on My Hands provides a very moving experience. The EP’s theme centers around the anger and hurt of having your heart ripped from your chest. With this album, Sweden’s Sounds Like Violence has taken this overused and abused theme and given it new life. The anger is white hot, passionate and communicated well through their explosive sound and cleverly worded lyrics.
The lyrics are poetically written and far from contrived. They are angry and beautiful all at the same time—an expression of pure, raw emotion. It’s almost as though the EP tells a story, with the opening track “Nothing” being an introduction to the heartbreak and the closing track “The Greatest” showing that, while he is bitter and angry, he is moving on. In between are some stellar lines, such as “I called up my first love/it must have been ten years since we last spoke/I said: hi, how are you?/What have you been up to since you cut my heart out?/Is it there somewhere?/Does it fit in there?/In your nice apartment” (from “Heartless Wreck”), which paints a very vivid picture. Another great example of their stellar songwriting ability appears in “Were You Ever In Love With Me,” painting a poignant picture of falling in love and being forced out of it when the relationship ends: “You make hurt a very good name/and lies is your best friend/love, I was so in love with you/I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
If you’re into comparisons, Sounds Like Violence could be compared to both The Killers (with their Euro/indie-rock undertones) and At the Drive-In (with their crunchy guitar riffs and gritty vocals). It is a unique combination and it works. The Killers are very evident at the beginning of “Glad I’m Losing You,” while At the Drive-In is interwoven throughout the EP.
Having said that, in a sea of copycat indie rock artists, Sounds Like Violence is a gem, and With Blood on My Hands is an album not to be missed. Their sound is angry, bitter, gritty and captivating all at once. They are honest and real, with a performance that comes from the (broken) heart and keeps you hooked.
-Andrea Caruso
Sunshine131@gmail.com