On paper the thought of another melodic hardcore band with screamo tendencies that hails from Florida is about as enticing as a scalding-hot colonic. Factor in that the album is produced by James Paul Wisner, a man who helped launch the careers of Dashboard Confessional and more recently a rather uninspiring and tamed-down Underoath, and you'd expect this effort to come complete with a paint by numbers coloring book.

Surprisingly though, for all the odds stacked up against them Hand To Hand do actually deliver an album that can keep the listener interested. By relying more on their aggressive side the group capture a sound that revels in pairing raging screams against soaring emotional melodies ala Haste. At its best the crunchy bottom-heavy riffing and turbulent nature capture the perforated sheen of contemporary hardcore and metalcore to a tee. At its worst the syrupy emo-styled vocals and accompanying lightweight instrumentation bring the songs to a dreary halt with needlessly bland emotional baggage.

The varying mix and accomplished take on the whole situation does work in the bands favor more often than not however. Even with a rather ambitious nature to constantly balance their lighter and darker sides, the mix struck does capture enough dynamic energy to warrant continuing onto the next track. But for a style already so crowded and popularized, standing out is about as easy as finding a polar bear in an avalanche. Even with a fairly eclectic take that sees the band branching out into serene acoustics and more, there is nothing here that screams original. But that's not to say that this isn't about as good as a band in this vein of music can get these days.