Hands Like Houses - ATMOSPHERICS (2025)

Tracklist

CD1
01. Heaven
02. Better Before
03. BLOODRUSH
04. Paradise

CD2
01. 24 Hours
02. Hollow
03. Panic
04. Wildfire

CD3
01. The Devil of Decisions
02. Hurts Like Hell
03. Obey
04. Chemicals

CD4
01. Fatally Fractured
02. ICU
03. Parasite
04. The End

When vocalist Trenton Woodley exited Hands Like Houses some 15 years after co-founding the Canberra band, it could easily have been the end. But two years after that inflection point, the post-hardcore battlers return invigorated, sporting new singer Josh Raven (ex-The FAIM) and an ambitious double album. Structured in four chapters—with the first three released as individual EPs—ATMOSPHERICS was inspired by the four layers of Earth’s atmosphere. And while the band make dynamic use of Raven throughout, they also tap a diverse cast of guest singers that includes Aaron Gillespie (Underoath), Emmy Mack (RedHook), and Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens). That allows them to play with some dramatic extra colors, including the mellower shoegaze textures alongside The Getaway Plan’s Matthew Wright on “Paradise” and the anguished romance of “Hurts Like Hell” with members of Swedish act Normandie. But for a band so well known for its saturated crush of heaviness, Hands Like Houses remind us how delicate they can be on “Fatally Fractured” and the softer swathes of opener “Heaven.” Woodley may proclaim that “heaven’s no place for us” on the latter, but their skyward trajectory argues otherwise.

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