Review Summary: "Groovy" with a touch of "grating".
Let’s make it clear, metalcore isn’t popular in Poland. I’ve never met a person who would even mention it while discussing Polish music. Death metal? Hell yeah. Punk? Sure. Hard rock, heavy metal? Obviously. Metalcore? Nope. We actually have a ton of acts playing the genre, but the vast majority seems confined to the underground, including the subject of this review. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce new players on our neglected scene, Pray for Plagues.
The first singles from the band, “Witch Hunt” and “Broken” were competent melodic metalcore songs and I still like to jam them every once in a while. When 2024 came however, Pray for Plagues decided to go in a more aggressive direction and this is how
My Hands Are Tied came to be. Problem is, a range of clichés came along, which I feel are common in modern metalcore and adjacent genres. Generic breakdowns? Check. Compressed production? Check. High raspy singing layered to absolute trash? Check, check and check. Oddly enough, the latter two largely disappear on the last two tracks, probably because they’re the oldest material here and the production hasn’t changed for their album release. Which is good but makes
MHAT’s coherence suffer a little. On the positive side, it’s not so apparent on speakers.
The musicianship is fair-to-middling. Screams are diverse and hit like a freight train. Clean vocal melodies are fun, but often derailed by unbelievably haphazard layering. The bass is loud, potent and pretty much carries other instruments. We don’t get many exciting guitar leads, not to mention how most of them are pushed back in the mix. In fact,
MHAT prioritizes the rhythms so much it feels more like a groove metal record, which can get boring after a while. Keyboards that appear from time-to-time are a nice touch and create a sinister atmosphere. The title track is a clear highlight, being the shortest, tightest and most intense song here, featuring the album’s most memorable riff in the intro. If this one doesn’t stick the landing for you, you can safely leave out all the rest.
My Hands Are Tied has a lot of potential undermined by dubious stylistic choices. If you’re forgiving, give it a shot. If not, I at least recommend listening to the title track and possibly “Night Shades” as well. The next album is confirmed to be in the works and we’ll see if it fares better than this one. Until then, I’ll take Pray for Plagues for what they have to offer.
