Wednesday 22 June 2016

Harvester - Harmonic Ruptures (Album Review)


Release date: July 1st 2016. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Harmonic Ruptures – Tracklisting

Summoner
The Obol
Magnetic North
Lapse
Dimensionaut
Wrought
Outlier
Past The Mantle

Band Members:

Bryan Higgins- Guitar
Gavin Grealy- Guitar, Vocals
Steve Loughney - Bass
Kenn Sweeney - Drums

Review:

Harvester return after a four year absence with their new album – Harmonic Ruptures. Their debut album – Blind Summit Recordings – showed a band influenced by the mighty Black Sabbath but also influenced by bands such as Mastodon, Torche and Thin Lizzy. The album showed that these guys meant business with their anthemic sludge/stoner driven riffs. Since then the band have supported Mastodon (by Bill Kelliher's personal request) multiple times now. So if it’s good enough for Mastodon then it should be good enough for you to check out their excellent new album – Harmonic Ruptures.

What you get is 38 minutes of heavy Sludge/Stoner Metal vibes that offer an exciting alternative to their debut album. Opening track Summoner sees Harvester return with a more psychedelic and fuzz based sound that allows the band to create a heavier style of music compared to their debut album. The vocals have a raw intensity which feel they were recorded LIVE and in one take. That’s a good thing as they feel very natural to some of the more mainstream releases I’ve heard recently.

Second track – The Obol – has a more psychedelic vibe to the opening track as Harvester open with heavier vocals and spaced out progressive sludge riffs. The Thin Lizzy dual style guitars is always a welcome bonus as Harvester expand their sound with shades of classic rock and heavy metal vibes starting to appear.

Third track – Magnetic North – is perhaps the albums standout track as the band combine fast-paced Sludge/Stoner Riffs with superb vocals to match. The song changes different directions throughout with Harvester playing a wide range of different genres. The rest of the album follows the same path as Harvester blend Progressive Sludge/Stoner psych based riffs with a loving and knowing affection towards bands from the classic era of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.

The following two tracks – Lapse and Dimensionaut – are very different to each other with Lapse following the same path as the opening three tracks with a more distorted driven sound. Dimesionaut is a seventy second instrumental ambient based song with an acoustic almost folk based guitar holding everything together. It’s quite a stark contrast to the other songs on the album.

Though it’s back to normal business for the final three songs on the album – Wrought, Outlier and Past The Mantle. This is where Harvester create some of the albums heaviest moments especially on Wrought which is influenced primarily by early-era Mastodon and Baroness. The final song – Past The Mantle – shows the full wide range of Harvester’s musical talents. As they blend post-rock/post-metal atmospherics with heavy sludge/stoner metal rhythms with a slight twinge of space rock theatrics. Another standout track on the album. Play this song nice and loud. It may start off very quietly but give it time as Harvester unleash a whirlwind of unstoppable noise.

I know that some people will complain that the production could have done with more work. As it can sound very lo-fi and raw at times. I feel this is what Harvester were aiming for with the album by creating an album that’s close to the live Harvester experience you’re ever likely to get. This album makes you feel that you’re in the front row of a Harvester live performance.

Harmonic Ruptures is a spellbinding and thrilling album to listen to. It shows you the full power and scope of Harvester’s musical vision as Harvester have released a must have album.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Harvester for the promo. Harmonic Ruptures will be available to buy on CD from July 1st 2016 with physical releases coming later in the year.

Links:


Harvester have upcoming gigs in Ireland, UK and were also recently asked by Bill Kelliher to support Mastodon in August.

Upcoming Gigs

Thurs 7 July Galway - Roisin Dubh
Fri 8 July Cork - Fred Zeppelins
Sat 9 July Kilkenny - Cleeres

Also we will be returning to bonnie Scotland at the end of July. More UK gigs to be added

Thurs 28 July - Edinburgh - Banshee Labyrinth
Fri 29 July - Glasgow - Nice n' Sleazy
Sun 14 Aug Belfast - Limelight w/ Mastodon
Mon 15 Aug Dublin - Academy w/ Mastodon

Check out the excellent new song - Magnetic North from Harmonic Ruptures.