Russell HughesFeed The Rhino – The Silence (Century Media Records)
Genre: Hardcore
They say that age and maturity temper the firebrand wildness of youth and perhaps Feed The Rhino are going through that transformation.
Like the temperamental sports star who’s learned how to control their worst excesses and make their best impulses even greater, the Kent five-piece have added delicious nuance to their music.
Where The Sound And The Sorrow was a tempestuous whirlwind of hardcore sound, The Silence is a more thoughtful body of work. Rather than bursting out of the blocks with a flurry of haymakers, it rope-a-dopes you within reach and then delivers the knockout blow.
But don’t let that fool you. There is more than enough within the 40 minutes to melt the faces of an entire Madame Tussauds.
All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy is a ferocious as the scene from The Shining with its distorted grove and Lee Tobin’s come-and-have-a-go-if-you-think-you’re-hard-enough guttural vocals.
There is also more of a melody unpinning the whole album. Nerve Of A Sinister Killer is a song straight from the eighth circle of Hell but it has a groove and a flow that’s as addictive as a tube of Pringles.
Within the control anger there is also a cathartic process at work through Timewave Zero, the first song on The Silence. ‘My imagine is a stranger staring back at me’, howls Tobin, before launching into the chorus of ‘mirror mirror, mirror mirror, fuck you’. The song is an emotional piece of music and serves a poignant reminder that we all struggle with self-image problems.
As the record bulldozes its way through 10 songs it finally comes to rest on Featherweight, a song with more than a hint of finest Beartooth about it.
This, of course, is no bad thing. Beartooth carry the flag for self-exposes hardcore but on this evidence Feed The Rhino aren’t far behind them.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 9/10 Feed me more of this