Harm's Way : "Common Suffering"

Perhaps the whole straight-edge thing, diverted my attention from this Chicago band. I am more likely to give a straight-edge band a chance than I am a Christian one, but it takes some convincing. This convincing came by way of the "Undertow" single featuring the singer of King Woman. After hearing this I was looking forward to giving the band the shot they deserve.  The opening song hits in the way that I typically want my hard core to slap me. Harm's Way has  a gritty musculature to the riffs, and the vocals punch in all the right places to rally  the head bob inducing syncopations shift with a groove. 

As far a hard core goes this album  is pretty accessible for people who are into most flavors of heavy. Not something that is going to get radio air play, but it works well for what they do. These guys care about songwriting. I heard they were all into Godflesh, which I find weird as I think of industrial music as being for people who are on drugs at clubs to dance to. The bass player carries a similar thump. They pound you with deliberate chugging rather than the faster punk side of hard core. "Devour" is where the album begins to find a place of sonic uniformity settling in.  This is where "Undertow" takes things in a darker and more melodic direction thanks to the vocals of Kristina Esfandiari. Another odd combination as there is a hazy smoked out vibe to King Woman's music. The two work very well together, this is the song that sold me on these guys so glad to hear their stuff measuring up to this. 

There is still a murky darkness lingering on "Heaven's Call" that hits with a more head banging metal stomp. The rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, and these guys are a good example of how to make cool riffs into a song. The bark of the vocals is articulated so the lyrical narrative plays a purpose.  "Cyanide" finds the grooving sway of the guitars still capable of keeping me engaged. The bass player proving to be the glue here in that regard. There are few flourishes of electronic percussion that keep things fresh. The more heavily weighted machine grind of industrial can be felt on "Terrorizer". I can hear where this would appeal to fans of Meshuggah , though they are staying closer to hard core than doing any kind of progressive time changes. 

"Sadist Guilt" finds the pace picking up into something more expected from hardcore.  The vocal delivery also falls in line with the more drill Sargent approach to hard-core vocals. This also comes closest to these guys going for the gang vocal trope but in a less predictable manner. "Wanderer" closes the album. The vocals shift to a more introspective singing leading into things. The song is darker and more spacious as the guitars ring out. The more shouted vocals come in under this. There is a great deal of emotion to the construction of the songs that paints things in a bleak shade of gray rather than just being the macho in-your-face beat-down you might expect this to be. I will give this album a 10, without a doubt one of the year's best hardcore albums.