ALBUM REVIEW: ROUGH HANDS - MORAL TERROR EP
Since ‘Code Orange’ achieved a Grammy nomination last year, the bar has been raised incredulously high for modern hardcore and the pressure is on for bands to create music to a phenomenally high standard in order to get noticed amongst their contemporaries. ‘Rough Hands’ are staking their claim with their latest EP ‘Moral Terror’. Exploring vocalist Alex Dench’s “outlook on the word physically and mentally and the changing state of the brain”; ‘Moral Terror’ is a massive statement of intent from this British hardcore outfit and a monstrous step up from their previous EP ‘Let Me Win Your Hearts And Minds’.
From the very start of opening track ‘Neuroplasticity’ you know that you are listening to something special. Horrific, haunting and beautiful all at the same time; ‘Neuroplasticity’ is a staggering introduction. Constantly changing time signatures and pummelling your ear drums like a jackhammer, the ‘Code Orange’ influences are clear. Yet just as you think the track is coming to an end, you realise that you are only halfway through and the song steers in a completely different direction in a style more similar to ‘Employed To Serve’, the pace slows momentarily before crashing into one of the most sinister riffs you will hear this year. This sense of excitement and innovation is a feeling that continues throughout the 23 minute EP. Second track ‘Sertraline Smile’ (a reference to a prescription anti-depressant that we have some experience with) is an accurate exploration of the impacts of depression and medication both lyrically and musically. Dench screams “Do not feel, do not hope” over the top of the crushing riffs and you know that this is genuine emotion. ‘Symptoms of Regression takes things to a slower level and show that ‘Rough Hands’ are much more than a one trick pony. Alternating between clean vocal verses and a heavy screaming chorus, this is far away from cliched metal core and closer to the experimentation of bands like ‘The Dillinger Escape Plan’. ‘Employed To Serve’ recently announced that they were already working on their follow up to last years sensational ‘Warmth Of A Dying Sun’ and we didn’t think there was any way that anyone else could hold a candle to them in terms of hardcore releases in 2018, but with ‘Moral Terror’, ‘Rough Hands’ have set the standard excruciatingly high.
9/10
Personal Highlight: It is practically impossible to pick a favourite track from this EP, but the title track closer pushes the band even further into exploratory territory from the outset. Incorporating bizarre guitar effects and elements of doom as well as additional effects on the vocals, ‘Moral Terror’ still feels like a teaser to even greater things that are to come.
