Vocals on “The Anatomy of an Atomic Heart” shift fast. Clarissa handles the harsh side. Guitarist Brandon takes the clean singing. The switches keep coming, and Willing Hands pull from the early-2000s metalcore they grew up on and take it in other directions.
The opening tips into older Bleeding Through and Misery Signals territory, but this beast keeps moving from there. We’re stoked to give you the first full listen below.
“The Anatomy of an Atomic Heart” is out July 13th, and Clarissa is careful about what to call it.
It’s a recovery record, not a breakup one. She wrote it after surviving domestic violence and facing loss, and the distinction matters to her.
“I feel that TAOAAH needed to be a recovery record for me to fully process my experience,” she says. “Therapy can only do so much for me. If I don’t do something with my impactful experiences it feels like I can’t move forward. My hope is that people who have experienced these things as well will find comfort and mutual catharsis through listening to the album.”
Calling it a breakup record, she adds, would imply saltiness over how a relationship ended. This isn’t that. The album also touches on other things, loss included.
When it comes to the record’s direction, the band point to Misery Signals and Poison the Well. “Bands like Misery Signals and Poison the Well do an incredible job of blending chaos and emotion without sacrificing either,” they say.
“In this way, they present emotion as power rather than a collection of memorable hooks. This was the perfect instrumental direction to pair with the lyrical themes.”
Those are just reference points though. The band’s mix of backgrounds keeps them from being overly derivative. The record is metalcore and hardcore at heart, but grunge, nu metal, and deathcore threads run through it.
“While writing the album, I think we sort of found our ‘musical identity’ by not giving a shit anymore about what genrebox people put us in. Growing up playing in Spokane has helped push us to write in a more personal way as opposed to writing for the masses too.”
The other reference points are Converge, Between the Buried and Me, and Rolo Tomassi. The band don’t treat those two sides as opposed.
“I think every member of the band would agree that it’s two sides of the same coin for us. We choose not to choose between them, if that makes sense.” Some songs, like “Solace,” have sections that bounce between the two vibes. Others fold them together in the same passage. “Atomic Heart” and “Back of the Morgue” do that in a lot of places.
“The Anatomy of an Atomic Heart” was tracked with Dave at Thunderdome.
“It’s well produced, but it still feels incredibly human. We purposely kept it a little imperfect and raw in a lot of places as that adds so much to the emotion and authenticity of the whole project.”
Catch the band live at the following dates:
July 16 – Spokane, WA @ The Big Dipper
July 17 – Bellingham, WA @ Karate Church
July 18 – Tacoma, WA @ Real Art Tacoma
July 19 – Yakima, WA @ Yakima Maker’s Space
July 20 – Moscow, ID @ Mikey’s Gyros
July 21 – Missoula, MT @ The Zacc
July 22 – Ogden, UT @ One Love
July 24 – Pocatello, ID @ The Chop Shop
July 25 – Richland, WA @ Ray’s Golden Lion
Find more bands from Washington state area covered in our exclusive features on IDIOTEQ:
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