Album Review: Handguns - 'Don't Bite Your Tongue'

With their second EP release in the space of a year, Pennsylvania pop punk band Handguns have delivered their new 7 track EP ‘Don’t Bite Your Tongue’. but it seems that a lot can happen in a year, the band have signed to Pure Noise Records they are touring constantly and have supported bands such as The Wonder Years, Man Overboard and Hawthorne Heights, with their old school pop punk sound and lyrics it is quite obvious from this EP that the band are heading in the right direction.

The EP starts off with ‘A Year In Review’, this song is raw and unpolished but yet delivers the full emotion and kick that an opening song is meant to. With its speedy pop punk guitar riffs and energetic snare heavy drums that the band made their signature in previous release ‘Anywhere But Home’, it is evident that they have matured since their last offering. However short at only 1:59 it is a great quick burst of pop punk sound and good introduction to the bands second EP.

The 7 track record continues on a similar road to what 'A Year In Review’ sets you up for, no surprises here really, just a consistent 7 song EP with a nice reminder of early 2000 pop punk. ‘Scream Goodbye’ is more up-tempo than its predecessor but still hitting you heard with its catchy chorus, group vocals and lines such as ‘’And I would rather die, or staple gun my eyes then have to see your face again, you’re wasting all my time’’ that shows these boys definitely have the pop punk lyrics down pat, and it’s lines like this one that run all through the record that makes these songs so catchy.

One down fall of a release from a band such as Handguns is that they haven’t really left themselves with much room to move, all the songs tend to start off quite similar and with the same feel, with its riff heavy intro and catchy vocals backed by the snare and symbol heavy drums, they are upbeat and fast and frankly sound very much the same. However I’m not saying this is a bad record because their classic pop punk sound with lyrics about lost love and summer days is heading in the right direction; it’s a fun, well written pop punk record.

On the whole 'Don’t Bite Your Tongue' has everything that a good pop-punk record should have, it’s good but nothing to write home, I wouldn’t say that it’s entirely original however still in their early days Handguns do have a lot of room to evolve and grow and I’m sure that will come in time.

1. A Year In Review
2. Scream Goodbye
3. Sink Like Lead
4. Best Excuse
5. Gag Reflex
6. Wait Up
7. I Hope He Kills You