HARM – The Nine

Frostbyte

This metal/grunge combo Harm hail from Southern Ontario, Canada. They’ve been around since 2003, but this is only their second outing. Released in their homeland and bits of Europe in 2009, the follow up now gets a full international release.

It’s a strange album in many ways. The opening salvoes are stereotypical doom outings with massively distorted vocals that more than nod to Tom Araya, ponderous riffing and cloying bass lines. ‘Salem’s Parade’ offers nothing new and is a bit like wading through treacle. The thrash/doom feel isn’t helped by tacky beast-of-hell sepia cover art, together with time-worn lyrical content gelling around dread, accusations and conspiracy.

And another thing. This album ‘The Nine’ has ten tracks. Am I missing something?

But as the collection winds on, a little more musical endeavour becomes apparent. ‘Philistine’ hints at light and shade, revealing a sublime chug before losing its way; ‘Chelsea Smile’ varies the pace and has some inventive delivery but peters out before any kind of climax is reached.

The album’s epic track is ‘Hand Me Down Virtue which trots out the classic interplay between acoustic melody and power doom grind. Vocalist Steve Sharpen gets into a Geoff Tate persona for a bit of well placed high-octane drama.

The band seem to be pitching for an interesting market that falls somewhere between Cathedral, Tool and Queensryche. At the moment, the song writing isn’t strong enough to pull this off and that’s what really lets them down.

Interesting though. Hope the next album builds on this.

***

Dave Atkinson

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)