Cruel Hand

Prying Eyes is amusing. The album itself is a terrific stab at first-gen hardcore featuring echoing bass, shifts between menacing mid-tempos and testosterone-fuelled blasts of furiousness, and a slightly updated feel thanks to crisp production and more guttural vocals accented by backgrounds. On the whole, it features all the pertinent elements a great hardcore band require — everything from Slayer’s speed to Hatebreed’s thunder and Madball’s beefy intensity. However, it’s the back-story to Prying Eyes that makes it phenomenal. Cruel Hand are actually renowned hardcore outfit Outbreak swapping instruments for a kick and inadvertently creating something far more dynamic, impressive and entertaining than anything their regular line-up have accomplished to date.