Hearts & Hand Grenades – Between The Lines

Hearts & Hand Grenades
Between The Lines
Eclipse Records
November 19^th, 2021
Playing time: 40:55

Only a few months have passed since the release of their debut “Turning To Ashes”. And already Hearts & Hand Grenades are following up with “Between The Line”. The quartet from Buffalo (NY) doesn’t seem to suffer from writer’s block. With their debut album, the band was able to achieve a respectable success. Musically, they were quite convincing. However, I had a bit of a critique about the songwriting. Let’s hear how they succeeded with their successor.

Drums ring in the first song. But just a few moments later, the impressive voice of Stephanie Wlosinski can be enjoyed in “Scream It Out”. It rocks away cheerfully. With great guitar solos. But already “Black Sunset” delivers another sound colour. A rhythm that literally carries you away. The first real highlight is the title track “Between The Lines”. Riffs and drums provide a powerful midtempo Rock sound. And again the guitar solos are the icing on the cake. You can sing along to the chorus immediately. A live warm-up that should certainly cause a lot of headbanging action. The rhythmic “Secret” follows. Here the singer puts a lot of blues into her voice. The guitar solos are also very bluesy. But “Tragedy” really gallops off. With “Beautiful Pain” there is a beautiful ballad on the album. Stephanie is mostly accompanied by clean guitars and calm, accentuated drumming. Only the chorus sounds a bit more powerful. “Bad Medicine” is then a great Rock’n’Roll anthem. A thrilling song with airplay quality. The longest song on the album, “Wait”, is just over five minutes long and once again delivers a guitar gallop. But it also offers melodic and rhythmic variety. For me, this is the best song on the album. The last song “Moonlight” is a bit quieter again. Not a real ballad but with many ballad-like moments.

Two albums within one year? Corona obviously makes it possible. Of course, at the beginning there was the anxious question whether this would not be at the expense of quality. Now after listening to it several times, I can only say that “Hearts & Hand Grenades” did a lot right on “Between The Lines”. It almost seems as if they took my criticism of the songwriting to heart. The follow-up is much better done than the debut. Obviously Stephanie and her boys have now found their style. This of course increases the anticipation for album number 3!

Hearts & Hand Grenades – Between the Lines (music video): https://youtu.be/6wdSD4xaBtA

Lineup:

Stephanie Wlosinski – Lead Vocals, Bass
Mike Bress – Guitar, Keyboard
Kenny Blesy – Lead Guitar
Tom Lafferty – Drums

Track list:

• Scream It Out
• Black Sunset
• Between The Lines
• Secret
• Tragedy
• Beautiful Pain
• Bad Medicine
• Illogical
• Wait
• Moonlight