Open Hand: You And Me

(Herald rating: * * *)

Open hand have been labelled stoner rock. But even the finest exponents of this mini rock genre (such as Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and Queens of the Stone Age) who have no doubt smoked their fair share of weed, have an attention span long enough to finish songs properly.

Ask any writer, be it of songs, articles, books or stories, and they'll tell you the end is hard, but essential.

Open Hand have some strong songs that unfortunately fizzle out to nothing, sounding like the band have lost concentration. There are interesting vocal dynamics, difficult guitar breaks that blossom, and some deep, slack and effortless grooves that good stoner rock is famous for. But many of these songs fizzle.

When they get their chug on (like the Foo Fighters-ish Tough Guy) or they try something uniquely them (the distorted yet gently brooding Newspeak), or they are permanently head down, and swinging and swaying Hard Night), they are powerful.

Open Hand are a mix of Tool, Kyuss-cum-Queens of the Stoneage, and, dare we say it, Nickleback. There's a desire to be popular, so hopefully we'll hear more of Open Hand before Nickleback make another middle-of-the-road assault on the rock charts.

Label: Trustkill/Roadrunner