Year: 2020
Label: Bat-Cave Productions
Rating: 8,9 / 10
I very rarely write about post-punk (or maybe I haven't written at all yet – I don't remember), but not because it's a "wrong format" or something. Post-punk and Heavy Metal are two very special and personal musical genres for me, and it is for this reason I am very picky when it comes to them. Both things should sound in a very specific way, period. And that's why I can count worthy (in my opinion) bands in both genres on the fingers of my hands. But if everything works out properly, then this is love for life.
My requirements for post-punk are very simple: a solid and stable rhythm section (!!!), smooth (but not lifeless) vocals with a limited emotional palette, a strong but even sense of anxiety, and, finally, a characteristic sound where the drums do these specific beats, the bass works as hard as guitar, and the guitar is ringing. That is, I am interested in the most typical and stripped-down post-punk, nothing more. But what a shame - it turned out that there is only a handful of such bands in the world. Wherever you stumble, there's either some faggot screaming his lungs out, or the guitars are playing almost metalcore, or the music as a whole is slipping into some kind of avant-garde / darkwave / synthpop. Or everything is fine, but simply oversaturated (see МОЛЧАТ ДОМА). Not to mention the fact that every second band sooner or later tries to take a swing at the greatness of FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, not having even a tenth of the necessary talent – with a well-known pathetic result. In short, at the moment there are only three formations where everything suits me – THE CURE of the "Seventeen Seconds" period, the Turks SHE PAST AWAY, and these Poles HÄNDE. There is also BELGRADO, and, of course, КИНО, but it's complicated.
Acquaintance with HÄNDE, as usual, happened inadvertently when I clicked on the promo for this very album on the Revelation of Doom forum. I immediately realized: that's it, and the rest is history. It should be noted right away that ideologically, nothing good can be expected from HÄNDE, since the band comes from a punk environment. They played at festivals with some dirty lowlifes for another dirty lowlifes, their heads are filled with degenerative “progressive thinking”, and most of the lyrics for the album, written by singer Ania, tells about female hardships or some ridiculous fuckery like "another Crystal Night". In short, another set of stunningly important social messages and warnings from another bunch of silly leftists. n metal, for me, this is an absolute and categorical no-go, but I'm okay with these things in post-punk, because, after all, one cannot demand common sense from a scene where adult men often tint their eyes black and wear fishnets on their hands.
Without wasting time on excessive rocking, the album starts with the very “Kryształowa Noc”, not the strongest track on the album, but indicative, since it contains in a lightweight form all the components of the music that we will listen to for the next 38 minutes. A solid and rather fast rhythm, a guitar that progressively increases the disturbing feeling, an extremely important synthesizer in the back, calm female vocals - well, I have already described everything in the beginning of this review. The sound is clean and crisp, devoid of unnecessary post-effects. The lyrics here and in the other songs, even if they are mostly about some bullshit, are written quite stylishly, and they interact with the music very well. Where it is necessary, they go next to the rhythm, where it is not necessary, they ornate the musical carcass with a verbal frame.
The first track is just a warm-up, because the cool beauty of the album begins to manifest itself from the second track. "Dwie Drogi" is an atmospheric thing with perhaps the most traditional post-punk lyrics. "Armia" is an anti-war hit. "Uważaj" is a fast and menacing song with an iron bass sound, which in a lyrical sense intentionally or unintentionally refers to "Следи за собой" of КИНО, only it's about the female fear of dark alleys. "Ucieczka" is a dreamy (by local standards) song with fantastic deep guitar parts. "Północ (Finlandia)" - undoubtedly the best work of HÄNDE, which remains forever even in a head like mine, full of various musical garbage. Obviously, the idea of the song came from one of the band members after a visit to Finland, since the lyrics to it are familiar to everyone who depends on the state policy of heating of the housing stock. "W ZIMNYCH POKOJACH ZIMNI LUDZIE UDAJĄ, ŻE MOGĘ JESZCZE CZUĆ / W ZIMNYCH DOMACH PO CIEMKU ROZMYŚLAJĄ, PO CO MAJĄ JUTRO WSTAĆ" – these unforgettable lines immediately remind you of the middle of autumn or spring, when the batteries are still / no longer heated, and the house is cold as hell, and, above all that, you have to go to work. "Marionetka" is something about emancipation, but I am primarily interested in a powerful and harsh bass sound. "Głos Ludzki" is a good instrumental with samples that separates the final track from the rest. It's a very smart move, because, as I said, the album is made in an almost constant rhythm, and this creates the necessary contrast. "Martwa Cisza" is the very final track, which is fundamentally no different from the rest, except for the two-word chorus, which falls on a very subtly felt short chord sequence. It immediately says that this is the finale of an outstanding album that I will listen to again and again.
The physical edition of the album comes in the form of a digipack with a small booklet containing photos and lyrics to the songs. There is also a vinyl version with a cover that somehow does not fit the music and the general atmosphere at all. Details on a video.
English (UK) 
Крыўская