New Bedford, Massachusetts — Beyond Heavy Music and past Post Hardcore there are Hardcore kids making soul. Holy Hands doesn’t play soul music exactly, they play their music from the soul and the words come from the heart.

New Magnetic may be a new kind of core to the world, but it’s tried and true to the few who have known Atomic Action since the 1990s. A trusty framework, if you listen it sounds familiar. If you listen closely to the thoughts they are new, they are New Bedford. They are “Adam Love,” “AG,” whatever you call Adam Gonsalves, his passion is Holy Hands Soul.

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I have a murky memory of my New Bedford childhood, Chilmark played on the Cape often, Ben Coleman and Joel Hamilton were great. I grew up loving Verbal Assault on friend’s red vinyl. “We are all Tiny Giants,” back then. I loved going to shows in Newport, Rhode Island. These places had a different influence on Hardcore. They were different from Boston or New York City, Ryan Parker wasn’t the only long hair in the scene. I think we all knew New Bedford Hardcore was special, soul back then came first. Love, peace and compassion were NBHC values. Holy Hands brings all that love, peace and compassion to current times. They play true music, true South Coast Rock music full of soul.

I talked with Ryan Parker, (ex. Gods Look Down / Daltonic) and Adam Gonsalves, (ex. Judo Heirs / Sweet Jesus) about the musical magic that flows from places like New Bedford.

Adam Gonsalves, voice and guitar, is a friend. He’s a person I’ve known forever, and throughout my life is one of the most peaceful people I’ve ever known. Adam puts this peace into practice and the result is music nothing less than a celebration of the goodness against the trials of life.

“We started in 2014, before Ryan joined, Derek (DaSilva) and I were really into things like Rival Schools. We always talked about things like Quicksand, but also things like Rites of Spring. We just thought about ‘we should do a band together,'” Adam said. “Craig Burns and I had been playing together in Judo Heirs skate rock kind of style. We were talking about doing a band at the same time. The three of us (Adam, Derek DaSilva and Craig Burns) got together and jammed. We were born as a three piece and did “Will Resist” off the LP which was the first song we ever wrote.”

Ryan Parker, guitar, is also a friend and someone who’s music I’ve admired all my life. From Third Age, through Daltonic and today, he’s worked or works with some of my favorite musicians to make great stuff. He’s recorded with Kurt Ballou, GodCity, most notably alongside Jacob Bannon with Supermachiner.

“Our defining attribute is that we’re writing songs, we’re not writing riffs, there’s sincerity,” Ryan said.

New Magnetic is Holy Hands’ first full length album. It’s a record that celebrates all the goodies in a Punk Rock gift bag. Hardcore, Punk, Post Hardcore and Heavy Music, but it’s their own thing. It’s all love with a side of riffs, hooks and jams.

They’re more than a DIY band, they’re a do it together band. This unifying, heartfelt quality compelled many artists to contribute on New Magnetic. “It’s definitely a heartfelt record. I don’t think I ever planned on making a record that was thematic in that way. They do all have that theme of love, justice and peace for others, but also for ones self,” Adam said.

I previewed the songs of New Magnetic before the vinyl came together and the tunes tapped my heart. “Bombs Aren’t Beautiful” has lyrics that speak of permanence of war, short sightedness and pain, “Bombs aren’t beautiful, yet often symbolized by exploding colors upon the peaceful sky. Bombs aren’t beautiful, and too often make mistakes. The kind that tear your heart out, never to be erased.”

“Black Paint,” according to Adam, is directly about Trump.

“It’s still like a love song in the way, for the common people who have to deal with these politics today. The lyrics were born in a time when the United States was going through a pretty big transition and the world was transitioning.”

Parker adds,

“I don’t have anything to do with the lyrics, but I’m a fan of them. I think that Adam can be writing a song about Trump or a song about tragedy. I think everything we’ll ever do is going to have a theme of love. A positive theme of love. An uplifting attitude. That’s Adam’s nature.”

This record is love on a platter. Love as a writing style, love as a political stance and love of musical heroes who through the test of time are now contemporaries.

They love Walter Schreifels, grew up on Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand. They sound like Rival Schools and Shades Apart while all together they’re a new kind of Core. Adam’s nature makes me feel the way Shelter made me feel when Ray Cappo changed the dynamics of Hardcore, it’s the newest wave of peace.

They are celebrators, like Verbal Assault, of “Tiny Giants.” They pay homage on songs like “Coleman” to friends in bands like Chilmark. Lyrics like, “You Inspired us to rise inside. Ben Coleman, your words speak the truth to me. Generation, lost. Yet all that’s left still remember.” Adam explained, “Coleman is a song about our friend Ben Coleman who is probably one of my favorite people, just such a major influence on me.”

They chose GodCity for this album.

“We hooked up the recording ourselves. We wrote the songs and were excited to record them. We all felt really strongly about these songs and we wanted to give them the best possible chance to come out the way we hear them in our heads,” Parker says. “We knew we wanted to record with him (Kurt Ballou) and booked the time six months out. We had to move a couple of times. He had Chelsea Wolfe in there. We were bouncing back and fourth between Converge tours and Chelsea Wolfe, her album (Hiss Spun).”

Parker continues, “This came one hundred percent fully formed and we went there to execute it. We had written the songs, practiced the songs, arranged the songs, recorded them on our own, recorded them as demos, really high quality demos. We went there to execute them.”

The music is some of my favorite this year. Couple their songwriting with the engineering and mixing of GodCity’s Kurt Ballou, the album cover art of Ron Henry Wells, and the design of Converge and Wear Your Would’s Jacob Bannon, it’s perfect. New Magnetic is a piece of art to be enjoyed visually and audibly. It’s what comes from New Bedford, strength and tenacity.

“We’re blessed as people to have a lot of really talented friends who are visionaries and they’re generous with their time and their generous with their talents,” Parker says. “We lucked out in that regard.”

After nearly three decades of being in Boston, New Bedford and South Coast bands these guys just keep it coming. Gonsalves says,

“As soon as we were done recording this, we were writing new songs. We’ve got three quarters of an LP written already and this LP is coming out this week. As long as we stay on track the sky’s the limit as far as creative endeavors.”

They have three bassists, two of them play guitar in this band and I asked them if it creates an identity crisis.

Gonsalves replied, “when we got Ryan on board that added the lead guitar that we needed.” It’s funny to hear they got lead guitar from a bassist. Parker adds context,

“everyone in the band is a bass player so we speak the same language. I think as far as being productive as a band, that is coming from a place where neither of us (Adam or Ryan) is doing the thing – I assume – when you’re the bass player in the band you’re so confident in what you’re doing, there’s no input to be made. You’re just going to do the thing that you feel is right because you feel as your opinion is right. When Adam and I are playing guitar, neither one of us is coming to the table with that kind of confidence in our guitar. We’re welcoming, we’re requiring input from the rest of the band every step of the way. There’s a degree of collaboration that’s existing right now with us that I’ve never had on any other record.”

“I’ve absolutely written songs when we expect it to sound a certain way. It’s coming from a direct influence. No matter what we throw into the hopper it comes out sounding like Holy Hands,” Parker says. “I’ve written songs, this sounds a lot like something else, I don’t even worry about it anymore because by the time we all start playing it’s not going to sound anything like that. It’s going to sound like Holy Hands.”

“The Arrow,” “Coleman,” and “Black Paint” are three of Parker’s favorites to perform live. Gonsalves adds, “I have to say the last song, “New Magnetic North” really hits home to me. That one’s probably my favorite.”

The desire to stay small and be Tiny Giants is nimble, makes you great and strong. I hope they know their “true size,” because in my heart they’re huge.

“I hope other people get it too, I hope other people receive it. It doesn’t surprise me you’re receiving it the way we intended it because you’re coming from the same place we are. I’m not entirely sure that the rest of the world will. I hope they do,” Parkers concludes.

If you still believe, “We are all Tiny Giants” like the Verbal Assault song goes, “an act of love an attempt to give.” Lots of brilliant artists gave to New Magnetic. It’s a piece of art and music. A work of friendship, the heart and soul recorded for the world to hear. “It’s funny, all of our friends from way back are helping out with art,” Gonsalves ends. Holy Hands dropped their guts on a platter, their soul written and recorded to vinyl, so you can play love on your U-Turn Orbit without fear of damaging the cartridge.

  Editors Note: The title of this piece and other elements have been updated for clarity