"Don't call me elder statesman just because the rest were smart enough to quit."

Clocking up ten years as an independent act in a regional city writing a marginal genre of heavy music is wearying. On 'Tie Your Soul To Mine' all of these pressures and experiences and achievements have coalesced into an unfailingly mature, challenging and introspective record, it is Safe Hands' most exhilarating release yet. This is the sound of grown men with dynamic and long-term interests in heavy music, testing the boundaries. There are shades of La Dispute, The Hotelier, Touche Amore here, but it is a rock record core. It retains an undeniable Australian-ness, and seeks an antidote to violence and misogyny.

Safe Hands will be touring 'Tie Your Soul To Mine' throughout November with stops in Taree, Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Canberra.