(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))): HARLOTS

Monday 20 March 2017

HARLOTS

Band: HARLOTS

Genres: Punk / Hardcore / Grind / Metalcore / Math Metal / Sludge / Thrash / Noise / Death Metal / Experimental
Related artists: Enabler, Today Is The Day and Kenoma.
Country: Dayton, Ohio USA
Years Active: 2004-2008
Song: "War of the Great City"
Album: "This is the Second Death"
Year: 2006
For fans of: Johnny Truant, Owen Hart, Into The Moat, From A Second Story Window, Tentacles, Buried Inside, Norma Jean, Burnt By The Sun, Converge, Between The Buried And Me, Warsaw Was Raw, Supermachiner, Tephra and (early) The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Label(s): Feeling Faint Productions / Corrosive Recordings / Lifeforce Records / Soyuz Music
This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #4.

You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right here or get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.

In 2004 HARLOTS released the overly titled 'The Woman You Saw Is The Great City That Rules Over The Kings Of The Earth'. At 10 songs, it opens with a dreamy post-rock track before delving into pretty lengthy grindy metalcore with a bit of black and tech metal thrown in for good measure. The first banger is track two, titled "Babylon the Great" which is 6:26 of mind fuckery that isn't too far from early The Dillinger Escape Plan and the first From A Second Story Window EP. That last minute or so is insanely heavy and I fucking love it. This is followed by a post-everything instrumental track and then another that leans heavier towards the noise/experimental side of things. "Balancing the Limbs of Question" is the next killer tune and clocks in at 7:21. This behemoth begins much more like a metal/death metal track but the screaming and vocal variance keeps me around (instead of constant growling which drives me away). By four minutes the song has been to end of the universe and back but continues forward for three more propelled by menacing screams, incredibly powerful breakdowns and ballistic double bass...and some growls. Some. Oh, and a final demon death shriek. "In One Day Her Plagues Will Overtake Her" is devastating and reminds me at times of Owen Hart. "Famine" is a 23-second splash of acid-noise in the face. "She Will Be Consume By Fire" is another excellent example of HARLOTS just laying waste to the listener and for lengthy period of time, yet again.

Two years later, in 2006, HARLOTS put out another LP, this time titled 'This is the Second Death', which most definitely sounds like the subsequent step forward from their 2004 debut. The songs have better production, are tighter and more concise, as they generally shed the 6-7+ minute length. Right off the bat we have the band's traditional metalcore/math/grind along with new layers, including the occasional clean singing. By the end of "These are the Paths That We Choose (part 1)" the breakdowns and screaming bring about utter destruction in the last minute, is fucking awesome and will tickle the fancy of Norma Jean and Black Nail fans, as will the 1:20 mark in "These are the Paths That We Choose (part 2)". The noise tracks are present again and include the short "Moment of Desperation" and insanely long "Moment of Sickness". "Those Days Seem Several Hundred Years Ago" is a beautiful post-rock/post-hardcore song complete with violin and piano that would have Mogwai and Godspeed, You! Black Emperor fans nodding in approval until the Supermachiner-esque unraveling of the song by its conclusion. "Remote Coagulation" is a pummeling assault on the ears, "Asceticism" is 2:43 of instrumental math-metal, "War of the Great City" is my favourite from this album and takes all of the aspects that HARLOTS excelled in and somehow stuffs it into 3:04. Closer "Fall of the Matriarch" was so close to being the blog mix track, as the instrumental post-everything is breathtaking and gorgeous, and therefore not exactly the typical HARLOTS sound.

Somehow, just a year later, the band churned out their final LP titled 'Betrayal'. The opening track hits like a ton of bricks and lets you know from the get-go that they've changed up their vocal delivery, as the higher screams and general variety is cut back and generally replaced with lower, gutteral growls that sound a lot like the deeper side of Between The Buried And Me, From A Second Story Window and later Into The Moat. Speaking of Between The Buried And Me, the second song "Avada Kedavra" is almost identical to that very influential band in many respects, including the instrumentals. "Full Body Contortion" follows and combines multiple vocalists with both pulverizing drums and bass as well as some mathy as fuck guitars and even a foray back in to singing. "Dried Up Goliathan" is a massive venture into Neurosis, Rosetta, Tephra and perhaps even Isis territory and it fucking rocks throughout its 8:27 ascent to a very worthwhile climax. "Building an Empire Towards Destruction" is the exact opposite and obliterates everything in its path in less than two minutes. "Consensus for the Locus of Thought" is pretty screamy and fast as all hell and is without a doubt one of my favourite HARLOTS jams. "This is a Test...No Flesh Shall Be Spared" is meant for headbanging and parts definitely remind me of Johnny Truant although they throw in some melodic bits around 3:30 before descending rather hastily into the depths of hell. "The Concept of Existence" increases the amount of melody in the chaos (although not by much) and leads into the prodigious closer "Suicide Melody" that reproduces nearly every sound the band has been crafting over the years over 12 minutes.

In 2007 they also released what looks to be a nod to the dissolution of the band, as they released 'The Human War Machine' which is a demo/live album and very well recorded, but doesn't really include any unreleased material so I was a tad disappointed. In early 2008 they released 'Corellia', a single that showed the band had moved down to a two-piece thanks to the credits, so my guess is this was the beginning of the end and HARLOTS simply disbanded after this recording. The song itself is pretty damn awesome and could be likened to Into The Moat and early Warsaw Was Raw with raging...well, raging everything. It's 6:32 of absolutely blistering metal, whether you want to call it math, death or core, it's perhaps the best song ever released by HARLOTS, as well as the last.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2004 - The Woman You Saw Is The Great City That Rules Over The Kings Of The Earth cdLP (stream/donate/download here)

2006 - This is the Second Death cdLP (stream/donate/download here)

2007 - Betrayer cdLP (stream/donate/download here)
2007 - The Human War Machine demo/live LP (stream/donate/download here)

2008 - Corellia single (stream/donate/download here)

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(2008) HARLOTS - "Corellia" (from 'Corellia')