“We’re still sort of working off that initial bounce of energy, and I think that’s just become the way we work now: Greg has an infinite vault of riffs in his head and I f*cking love hitting the drums.” After catching their explosive performance supporting Raised By Owls last month, we got to talking with two-piece hardcore outfit Rogue Limb about their debut album ‘Actus Reus,’ and what lies ahead for the dynamic duo.

One of the most striking elements about Rogue Limb is their lineup: comprised of only guitarist Greg Blakeley and drummer Thew Adams, the band have stripped hardcore down to its most essential elements. Speaking on the formation of the band, Adams explained, “We went to Bloodstock 2021 because that was the first event that happened after Covid. Me and Greg were both there, so we were just kind of getting sloshed in the campsite and I’m like, ‘Greg, do you want to start a band? Just the two of us? Shall we just do it?’” Despite that jumpstart, not everything was so straightforward for Rogue Limb off the bat: as Blakeley explains, “I wasn’t sure about it. I’ve seen some bands who sound great, but they do sound like there’s something missing, so I was actually really tentative about doing a two-piece.” The pair cited a range of bands as influences on their sound, including Mantar (who’s two-piece sound finally convinced Greg to give the project a go), Converge and even Napalm Death — with such a wide range of inspirations, it’s so surprise to hear Thew declare that “all our stuff sounds like Rogue Limb, but we don’t have a genre, strictly— it’s just songs we want to write.”

Having started the band at Bloodstock, the duo told us they saw it as quite surreal to have playing there this year as part of Metal to the Masses. Reflecting on such an impressive feat, Adams said “it was nuts, obviously, because it was such a jump from where we’d normally been. It was only our 15th gig, so there was a lot of imposter syndrome on the go. But once you get past that, it was just fun: seeing some videos from the crowd, we got a pretty nice response, and feedback’s been really good.”

One feather in Rogue Limb’s cap is their debut album ‘Actus Reus:’ talking on the record’s creation, the pair described the recording process as “quite simple: we’ve both made albums before in previous bands.” Diving deeper into how the duo managed to capture such an energy on the album, Greg explained “We booked for four days, so we had to be quick— the prep was really minimal. Thew went over the drums in a couple of days while I’m playing quietly along with him: rather than do scratch takes, we just did that live. Then just ‘guitar A,’ ‘guitar B’ and blitz through the vocals in about five hours!” 

Even despite Greg battling through illness during the recording process, the pair shared how proud they are of how the album turned out, saying “it came out well, I think. You can almost hear that there’s an intensity to the vocals and things: I think it lends a bit of urgency, doesn’t it?” The duo also shared how the nine track length of ‘Actus Reus’ came from them, quite simply, not knowing which songs to record and which to leave off. “By the end, [Bolty, producer] was like, ‘are you f*cking serious?’ because we did nine songs: we couldn’t decide which ones to do, so we just did everything.”

Thew was also happy to talk about the very personal meaning to the album’s lyrics and artwork (which he had actually made), citing the pandemic as a key source of inspiration. “We all have mental health struggles, and Covid didn’t do anyone any favours. Given the opportunity to self-examine and realise the effect that my life’s had on other people, we all affect each other’s lives in one way or another and that’s inevitable.” Narrowing in on the album’s cover, Thew explained, “The tree, I suppose, sort of represents a lot of self-examination and vulnerability. I was just walking around Derby, just looking for imagery— I’m fascinated by towns and the way they evolve, and how things are built on top of things. But there was this one tree that had been cut, and it looked so f*cking naked and sad, and I thought there was something there.” 

Many of the album’s lyrics dive into themes of mental health, though Adams was keen to provide a more positive outlook than many of his contemporaries. “‘Shatter Them’ is a song about self-forgiveness, and finding your strength and peace wherever you can. When you do reach that epiphany with your mental state, when you forgive yourself a little, there’s a euphoria to that, and I wanted to capture that in a metal song.”

With ‘Actus Reus’ recently passing its one-year anniversary, it’s only natural to wonder what might be coming next from the hardcore duo. Speaking on where Rogue Limb’s sound might be going next, Blakeley explained, “On the first album, there’s four songs that I see as being quite similar— the thrashy, punky ones— and then the others are either deliberate, or they just come out. I like that we have that diversity because we’ve got the choice of doing the familiar stuff or to do something we haven’t done yet, like the new song ‘Carnivore.’” The group dived into how keen they are to explore different genres, saying “I could write a stoner song, then a post-metal song, then I could write something I’ve never done before. It’s really freeing.” 

The future certainly looks promising for Rogue Limb, as the band let us know that, “at the moment, I’ve got four songs that (guitar-wise), I’ve pretty much finished, plus plenty of other ideas and two or three riffs than can form a song here and there as well. It might be an album’s worth once I actually sit down with each of those ideas, but I won’t know until I actually do that.” Greg even detailed some new ideas he’s been working with, including tapping on unplugged guitar cables and using three-note panic chords, proving how experimental and out-of-the-box Rogue Limb are willing to be.

As ever, we were curious to know if either member has a favourite album. Tapping into his love of metalcore, Greg chose Converge’s ‘Jane Doe,’ explaining that “I know there are better albums, even by Converge, but was so important. I can always put it on and always enjoy it: it doesn’t matter what frame of mind, which is weird to say when you can hardly decipher what he’s even saying.” Thew, meanwhile, went down the classic death metal route with Entombed’s ‘To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth,’ saying, “for me, it represents a lot of things. It’s heavy and horrible, but it’s also really creative and different: it’s groovy as all hell and it just sounds f*cking evil. It makes me want to play sh*t.”

Images generously provided by Rogue Limb