By My Hands, No Hope, No Escape (Purgatory, 2011)

"No Hope, No Escape" (released by Purgatory Records) is my first exposure to Glasgow, Scotland's By My Hands. The 7" offers up three tracks and is crammed with about eight minutes of absolutely awesome metallic hardcore in a straightforward 90's style. Expect essentially nothing but chugging midpaced rhythms with just a little bit of moderate speed, brutal breakdowns, gruff vocals, and so on. I guess you could say their approach leans ever so slightly towards a "beatdown" type of angle, but they're not really as over the top as most bands of that nature. In terms of aggressive, metal-influenced hardcore that doesn't venture into full-blown metal territory, it doesn't get much better than this. Are they breaking new ground? Nope. But who gives a shit!? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? I'm all over this, and would love to hear more from By My Hands. I'll have to check out their prior releases for sure...

This one's not available for sale just yet, so keep an eye on the label's webstore. Pre-orders should be up any day now with an official release date slated for next month...