Cut The Architect’s Hand – Remove the Head, Destroy the Stairs (Aunt Mary Records)
Cut The Architect’s Hand is a band that defies any sort of pigeonholing other than some sort of vague metal reference. But even that could be confusing, like when you tell a co-worker you like metal and they respond with something that might pass for metal in a Baptist convention.
Cut The Architect’s Hand – Remove the Head, Destroy the Stairs (Aunt Mary Records)
Cut The Architect’s Hand is a band that defies any sort of pigeonholing other than some sort of vague metal reference. But even that could be confusing, like when you tell a co-worker you like metal and they respond with something that might pass for metal in a Baptist convention. Or maybe you’ve read my show reviews and laughed at my inadequate vocabulary. My thesaurus became extinct, and Cut The Architect’s Hand remained hard to explain. But let’s move on to the hows and whys.
In existence off and on for over a decade now, CTAH has a number of out of print independent releases that won’t be seeing the light of day again. So if you have copies, count yourself lucky. Remove The Head, Destroy The Stairs was originally released digitally by Aunt Mary Records in late 2010, but it’s just been rereleased as an actual physical CD. Since this EP was recorded, though, CTAH have switched guitar players, from Brian Van Sprouse (who played on this EP) to Tim Madison of American Dream fame.
I detect an abstract sense of humor in CTAH’s music on this EP, sort of like the Kids In The Hall. It’s not so brazen as to be spoonfed to you outright, but is apparent when you really consider what the imagery suggests. The title of Remove the Head, Destroy the Stairs makes me think of the scene in Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase notices the top post of the staircase is loose and so uses a chainsaw to cut it off.
The other way the playfulness comes out is in the music itself. They really thrive on muscular non sequiturs. Frankenstein songwriting meets junkyard riffs made of all the ugly non resolving parts of a jazz progression. “Bring Me a Shovel” is a good example. Not like flipping a radio dial, but an amalgam of various hardcore, punk, and metal influences. Sometimes they do things to repel the listener, much like a lot of the original metalcore bands, such as Burnt By The Sun, Coalesce, Converge, and Botch, did. Occasionally you’ll even get some wrong-chord thrash mixed with stick clicks, as on “Rot For All I Care.”
There is also a real free spirit to the composition of such tracks as “Hempin’ Halter” and “There Are No Second Chances,” but it seems deliberate. I think modern bands could learn something from these guys. Too bad most of them would be infected with riff salad–a terrible condition where songs are constructed without the forethought of composition. No matter how unconventional CTAH’s song construction might get, it always possesses an obvious internal logic.
Cut The Architect’s Hand are putting together a full-length followup to this EP, which is due out sometime later this year. In the meantime, you can pick up CD copies of Remove the Head, Destroy The Stairs at BK Music, Plan 9, or directly from the band. It’s also available for streaming on bandcamp at http://auntmaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/remove-the-head-destroy-the-stairs
