Handsome: Handsome

Those who think metal is dead need only listen to the guitars of Handsome: Played by Helmet's Peter Mengede and Quicksand's Tom Capone, they're thick and chunky, delivered in terse, ham-fisted riffs. While Mengede and Capone are graduates of a New York hardcore scene that often mixes smart lyrics and jazz-based time signatures into its heavy-metal thunder, their work here is mostly monotonous and, well, metallic. Yet that doesn't make Handsome's self-titled debut a bad record: Despite the lumbering guitar sound and the occasionally straining vocal style of singer Jeremy Chatelain, the band itself does a nice job keeping the arrangements tight, brief and surprisingly compelling. The songs are bombastic without turning into dumb metal anthems, and the overall sound leans hardcore while still providing unexpected texture. If anything, for all the band's hard-rock leanings and hardcore pedigree, it's the melodies and subtleties that save the music.