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Listen to Rough Hands’ intense, unforgiving new EP ‘Moral Terror’
The new collection, out Friday via Venn Records, is our Neu Pick.
Every weekday, DIY’s new music know-it-all Neu brings you one essential new release to get obsessed with. Today’s Neu Pick comes from Rough Hands.
Brighton-via-Croydon’s Rough Hands are releasing their new EP ‘Moral Terror’ on Friday (13th April) via Venn Records, and we’re streaming the whole thing early as today’s Neu Pick.
An intense, unforgiving thrash, ‘Moral Terror’ concerns itself with ongoing changes in the brain over time, and as well as reflecting on these feelings, the record feels like it’s trying to forcibly smash through them.
Led by huge first track ‘Neuroplasticity’, the EP’s five tracks present a band on the move towards something huge, making the release feel like a stepping stone, as well as a moment in itself.
We talked to the band about the release and the road to ‘Moral Terror’. Listen to the EP in full and view the Q&A below.
Can you tell us a little bit about how your new EP ‘Moral Terror’ came together?
The process of writing Moral Terror began as soon as we put out our last record LMWYHAM in 2016. We were pleased with what we learnt during the process of the release. It gave us a new wave of confidence, so naturally we proceed to write a follow up. The songs that ended up forming Moral Terror are the result of drawn out jamming sessions, experimenting, but with a clear direction and focus of an overall sound. We eventually selected the best parts and elements from these sessions and refined them into songs. We weren’t writing within a prison.
The record seems like the culmination of a journey towards this sound - does it feel the same to you, and where can you see it going in the future?
Everything we have been doing as a band so far has lead up to this point, sonically and artistically. As for future, we plan on pushing ourselves to the limits in terms of composition, and musicianship. We don’t plan on playing anything safe or trying to sound like anybody else.
The EP seems to touch on some pretty heavy subject matter - do you get a catharsis from finishing something like this, and does it help your personal progression as well as listeners?
The subject matter is reflective of the way that I interpret the world, physically and mentally. There is no real catharsis in finishing something like this, just the drive to do it all again. The progression that happens is involuntary, it’s something that occurs when you put a lot of effort into something. As for the listeners, if people find our music helpful for their own progression, that’s great to hear, but we won’t take credit for other people’s accomplishments.
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