{"id":21581,"date":"2014-06-25T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-rough-hands-nothings-changed\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:10:44","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:10:44","slug":"album-review-rough-hands-nothings-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-rough-hands-nothings-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Rough Hands &#8211; Nothing\u2019s Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tumblr_inline_n7mzasPGKO1qztcot.jpg\" width=\"150px\" title=\"\">I\u2019ve always been of the opinion that hardcore is best suited to EPs. Doesn\u2019t it make infinitely more sense for a genre originally built on pacey rhythms and a certain brand of short-livedness to be confined to bursts of four or five tracks? The elongated form tends to exacerbate hardcore\u2019s shortcomings, which mostly revolve around tiresome repetition and a deadening lack of ingenuity that sometimes just translates as a laziness on the band\u2019s part. Accordingly, I deem <strong>Rough Hands<\/strong> worthy of attention, not just because their new EP <em>\u2019Nothing\u2019s Changed\u2019<\/em> fits my dictatorial and entirely a priori standards, but also thanks to the genuine intelligence, versatility, and impressive musicianship on display. <em>\u2019Nothing\u2019s Changed\u2019<\/em>\u2019 many qualities elevate it above the average HxC fan fix.<\/p>\n<p>The main draw lies in <strong>Rough Hands<\/strong>\u2019 reticence to keep things one-paced, an otherwise damning disease amongst hardcore bands. Especially in cases when you\u2019re intending to go anywhere above the 3-minute mark, as is the case on opening track <em>\u2019Mind In Pieces\u2019<\/em>, then you better be providing me with a little more than just aggression and speed. On said-track, the quintet gradually\u2014and ever so slightly\u2014hit the brakes. This progressive shift from the stylistic traditions of the genre to something on the verge between hardcore and sludge is mostly conveyed through drumwork, the rest of the band really delivering par for the course, but is also nevertheless a compelling introduction.<!-- more --><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Following what might almost be described as minimal post-rock interlude,\u00a0<em>\u2019-\u2019,<\/em> comes the eponymous track, certainly the EP\u2019s finest moment (and perhaps the band\u2019s strongest yet). Set alight with brutally muscular riffs over an atmospheric wall of sound, <em>\u2019Nothing\u2019s Changed\u2019<\/em> feeds from the gloomy depths to find some truly dirty chuggage and high doses of a doom-tinted mix of despair and rage. The track is undoubtedly the most potent summation of <strong>Rough Hands<\/strong>&rsquo; concise yet persistently engaging output. <em>\u2019Selfish Misery\u2019<\/em> might revert back to more traditional territory, as does closer <em>\u2019Conscientia\u2019<\/em> (which looks to flirt with trash before shifting right back to their wonderfully languid sludge-inflected riffs), but while they might have blended right into the wallpaper on a full hardcore album,<strong><strong> <strong>Rough Hands<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>\u2019 versatile approach makes them welcome additions to a wonderfully plural palette.<\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Nothing\u2019s Changed\u2019<\/em> by <strong>Rough Hands<\/strong> is out now on <strong>Holy Roar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rough Hands <\/strong>links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Roughhandshc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RoughHandsUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"http:\/\/roughhandsuk.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/swissbearclaw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@swissbearclaw<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve always been of the opinion that hardcore is best suited to EPs. Doesn\u2019t it make infinitely more sense for a genre originally built on pacey rhythms and a certain brand of short-livedness to be confined to bursts of four or five tracks? The elongated form tends to exacerbate hardcore\u2019s shortcomings, which mostly revolve around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,3573,94,9709,3307],"class_list":["post-21581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-holy-roar","tag-holy-roar-records","tag-nothings-changed","tag-rough-hands"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: Rough Hands - Nothing\u2019s Changed - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve always been of the opinion that hardcore is best suited to EPs. 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