You Can't Handle the Tooth

You Can't Handle the Tooth features tracks from 19 Tooth & Nail bands at a budget price of five bucks. UnderOath kicks it off with the convoluted "It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door." Screams slam into heartfelt whispers, rhythms frequently disappear in favor of moody synths, and there's even choral breakdown. Far-Less' "You Knew What This Was" is similarly hyper, too ambitious to be effective. But overreaching is a byproduct of the post-hardcore/screamo/emo corridor, where some bands will have trouble controlling their moving parts. Luckily Showbread offers a better version of the sound with "Dead by Dawn," where all the screaming and righteousness seems to actually matter in relation to the track's jerky, impatient chording. Anberlin's "Paperthin Hymn" is also effective, a slick approximation of Hoobastank and Live, while Project 86 offer an agreeably sludgy sound with "All of Me." Other You Can't Handle the Tooth highlights include pop-punk outfit Hawk Nelson's uninventive but harmlessly fun "Things We Go Through" and Terminal's "Dark," which shows off the measured approach they favored on 2005's How the Lonely Keep. Tooth's strongest track is probably "A Lists Go On" from the ever-reliable Starflyer 59, whose moody guitar pop is starting to sound really, really mature next to the excesses and outbursts of the Tooth & Nail roster's younger contingent. ~ Johnny Loftus

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