Broken Hands

There’s a ragged glory to Broken Hands’ output, a rumbling growl and cathartic howl suggesting decades on the road, if not the wagon; half a lifetime of hard days, wild nights and regretful dawns. The fact that the impossibly youthful band are actually only just embarking on their own rock odyssey is hard to fathom then - and will probably prove deeply upsetting for the many addled bluesmen forced to symbolically sell their souls to achieve something like it. The roots of R&B run strong in such young blood, but dare to call what they do ‘classic’ rock and they’ll scoff politely: these are contemporary songs, culled from countless sessions down in their borrowed basement rehearsal space. They’ve just done it in a quiet bit of Kent.

"This is a band who have had absolute control over their own stage presence since the very beginning. What is refreshing to see is that despite the clear British guitar band comparisons, there are no “c’mon youse lot, let’s fuckin’ ‘ave ye” comments or stares of unbearable arrogance (with shades on in the sunsheeeeeeiiiiiine, obviously) – rather, the conversation is kept to a minimum, the band preferring their music doing the talking, courtesy of the aforementioned musical fuzziness and singer Dale Norton’s previously-understated powerful, raspey and articulated vocals.

Based on tonight’s performance, we thinks it wouldn’t be terribly long before Broken Hands start cropping up as influence citations in their own right. A British guitar band with songs that hold to their own, an strong identity and without an iota of obnoxiousness to be found? Sounds too good to be true, but if that’s what it is, then that’s exactly what Broken Hands are."- Achal Dhillon, Killing Mood Ltd.