Album Review: Harm’s Way - Common Suffering
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
If there is a band who I really didn't get and missed on early into their career it's Harms Way, I didn't get it when I first heard them and it took a long time for me to try the band again, which I did not too long ago in 2021 following a fantastic set to Ieper Fest in Belgium. With the title of Common Suffering, this will be the bands second release via Metal Blade and the title is a nod to the experiences of everyone over the last three years. If you know anything about Harms Way and how they portray the music they create you already have an idea what to expect.
Common Suffering is a huge and glorious slab of pure power. Harms Way combines the passion and brute force of hardcore with the dissonant and quite uneasy listening experience of industrial acts and this record just batters you sonically through each of its tracks. But it's not just a slab of anger and rage, this record is so much more.
As you delve further into the record, Harms Way provide tracks such as “Undertow” and “Terrorizer” which offer a more harsh yet strangely ambient side of the bands creative process, they are not tracks which are written for the carnage of the dancefloor but provide you with a whole new type of audio carnage. The vocals are an area of Harms Way I really enjoy, so effortless in their execution, they are not about sounding the angriest person on the planet, they are a release and you really get an honest expression from the band when those words and music meet together.
Common Suffering is ten slabs of mayhem wrapped up with huge, heavy and frankly quite uneasy riffs, deep and pounding low end and powerful vocals. It instantly grabs your attention and showcases a really beautifully crafted artform even if the subject matter is anything but beautiful. The most important thing about Harms Way is this, we have all seen the running man memes, yes they are fun but do not let that distract you from how good this band is.
