Review: Foreign Hands - Bleed the Dream (EP)

Label: DAZE Records

I'm assuming that FOREIGN HANDS worked hard to get where they at right now. They already formed back in 2009, but took some time to release any proper stuff. They eventually put out their debut album "No Funeral for the Spirit" in 2016 to sparse recognition. The following years they produced some EPs and demos, and a Split at the end of 2019. All that leads us to their new EP "Bleed the Dream". A record that seems fully realized. A record totally fitting into 2022, with DYING WISH tearing it up not too long ago.

Listening to FOREIGN HANDS and not mentioning POISON THE WELL is probably impossible. They obviously were a big influence to their music. Most of the time this feels like something from POISON THE WELL, somewhere between "The Opposite of December" and "Tear from the Red", with the production of the 2020s. They're not as rough and gritty as early PTW, they're more Metal-orientated and the production is more flashy and more clean. They come close to the point where it would already be too clean for my own taste, but it's pretty much ok as it is. It's powerful as fuck, and kinda like the new version of that old sound. Aesthetically this has everything you could wish for, from the monotone chugga chugga to the heavy and groovy moshparts to the screeching guitars to the epic, often subliminal melodies. The vocals are in best PTW-tradition as well, with the clash of desperate screams, reserved spoken words, and some clean singing. 

I can't believe how close they come to PTW (they also call TWELVE TRIBES to mind) but still manage to fire me up. Sure, "The Opposite of December" is one of my all-time-favourite records, but usually I should be calling this the biggest, most unoriginal rip-off in years. It may be a rip-off, a homage, a reignition or whatever you would like to call it. But it's also superior to anything from anyone whoever tried the same the last 20 years or so and on top of that outshines most of PTW's own discography. FOREIGN HANDS reach a similar level of dynamic and energy, and they hit home with their songwriting. They may use the same elements, but the songs don't feel the same. "Separation Souvenir" is something like the "hit" with it's amazing melodies and the "Slice Paper Wrists"-like drama to it. "A Cardiac Winter" would be the best song on "Tear from the Red", next to "Botchla", while the 90-second long "Hesitation Marks" is a relentless neckbreaker. Other than that, "Bleed the Dream" is a coherent piece of music. These 15 minutes just flow perfectly from start to finish and function mostly as a whole.

I don't know if there's already some kind of revival going on, but with bands like DYING WISH, SINCE MY BELOVED, FOREIGN HANDS and some other stuff coming out on labels like DAZE or This Coming Strife Records I could see myself enjoying Metalcore as much as I did 20 years ago.

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