EP REVIEW: Brutal By Design – Bite The Hand
We’re living between the ball and the socket, slowly grinding away into a gristly mess after a slew of disastrous events throughout the world. Sometimes it can just be the street level day to day stresses that get us, gradually breaking us down to the point of our wicks going out. Bay Area hardcore quintet BITE THE HAND recognise that and offer momentary respite in their new EP Brutal By Design. Outlining the nervousness in the air around, the apprehension of making a defining decision, and pinpointing its contours to be destructive and deal with the fallout, this record is anti-self help for hardcore lovers.
The introduction features an Al Pacino line from Heat “I gotta hold on to my angst, I preserve it, because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be” and if that doesn’t sum up what’s to come, embracing the shakiness in experiences and turning that into a fuming ball of intensity, then nothing will. Day Of Pain and Rotting Mouths tackle you with unrivalled urgency, a real now or never energy; the latter approaches on lightning strike riffs whilst finding aggression in the bury your head in the sand behaviours. Instead of mulling things over, BITE THE HAND are all about action, bloody, unfiltered and violent action — because if you watch the world pass you by you’ll turn to dust with the rest of it at the end.
Title track Brutal By Design looms for a moment before swinging down the power of a woodchopper, and the result is similar as you can imagine. If you’re anything less than interested in getting your act together, then you’re about as much use as a rotten piece of wood when it comes to this track. BITE THE HAND take no prisoners throughout the EP; that’s what’s so exciting, perpetual fervour building up and even its release of tearing through your eardrums build up a wall that you just aren’t going to get over, or through for that matter. Probably not around it either. Closer The Pressure will clock you straight in the chest like a one-inch punch and you’ll crumble beneath it for sure.
BITE THE HAND are cutthroat, and God is that exciting. It’s mouthwatering anger, clenching your fists until they bleed; they give the impression that they can burst through a crowd like a whirlwind. The only sin they commit is not giving us more of what Brutal By Design offers; the runtime is ironically conservative, when you can hear that there’s still more of that scathing music of theirs in the tank.
Rating: 9/10
Brutal By Design is out now via Big Bite Records.
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