Temper & Hold – The Speed Of Travel LP (Grafton Records)

Here’s some more marvelous music from a recent batch sent by Grafton Records. As you probably know, I am a big fan of anything coming out from Portland and this is another release that proves my point there’s no bad music coming out from the state of Oregon. Of course, I am talking about punk rock-related music, but I am pretty much sure that you’ll be amazed by any other music genre hailing from there. It’s pretty damn hard to grasp all the bands on the global scene, so I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with this one. As far as I am informed, Temper & Hold has only two recordings so far and I am not familiar if this band is still active or not. However, two full-length releases are more than enough to get the impression of the band and I have to admit their music is right up my alley. Today, I will talk about The Speed Of Travel, their second full-length release.

The Speed Of Travel carries nine excellent compositions that span several complementary genres. Perhaps the emo comes to mind first, but this band handles emo core, post-hardcore, and indie rock with such ease. Right with initial notes and beats, you’ll realize that Temper & Hold are a versatile band capable of performing calmy, soothing, relaxing, cathartic emo tunes, but still, this band transits into a ferocious, energetic, dynamic post-hardcore beast in a matter of seconds with such ease. The band solely relies upon an already proven formula built upon calmy verses where the excellent female lead vocals shine bright alongside cleverly assembled chord progressions and moderate beats. However, Temper & Hold burst with relentless power during the loud, heavy, but still melodic choruses that usually include gradually distorted riffs and complex rhythmic maneuvers.

Temper & Hold are probably one of the greatest representatives of Grafton Records alongside The Holdout, which is no wonder considering that these two bands share some band members. You can also notice some similarities between these two bands, but it seems that Temper & Hold burst with more aggression, and The Holdout carry slightly better production. I have to admit that I solely enjoyed this well-balanced sound built upon late nineties emo and contemporary post-hardcore. There are maybe some characteristics of early nineties alternative rock sound enclosed in some of the songs, but Temper & Hold cleverly masked these similarities with layers of melancholic sounds. The Speed Of Travel comes on vinyl and maybe there are some copies left, so head over to Grafton Records for more information about ordering.