Harm

Le métal canadien est de façon générale très technique ainsi que thrash-speed sinon death... C'est donc avec une certaine crainte que j'ai appuyé sur « play » de mon lecteur cd aujourd'hui. Pourquoi? Il y avait « The nine » de Harm dans le lecteur! Harm est un groupe canadien, ils sont d'Ontario, qui joue un métal moderne sans grandes technicité ou originalité. Le groupe est plutôt très influencé par Limb Bizkit, Korn et Distrubed. Une sauce déjà très exploitée et depuis des lustres... Cependant, Harm fait bien les choses et ce, dès l'ouverture du disque avec « The salem parade ». L'album sonne bien et les arrangements sont de qualité. De plus, le chanteur du groupe, Steve Sharpen, laisse passer une espèce de folie dans son chant. Un peu à l'image de Jonathan Davis, le chanteur de Korn. Les titres « Argue and grin » et «The chelsea smile » en sont de très bons exemples. Pour ma part, j'ai adoré les titres « Pretentcious » et « Sentimental enterprise » qui ferme le disque. Je crois que ceux-ci s'éloignent un peu des autres pièce de l'album. Elles démontrent tout le talent de compositeur de la jeune formation canadienne. Au final, « The nine » est tout simplement un bon album de rock. Oui! Du rock métal moderne qui sonne haut et fort ! - Musique d’une Nation

"The Nine" is the second album from Canadian metallers Harm. Originally released in Europe late in 2009, the album is being re-released to reach a wider audience. The band formed in 2003 and released their debut album in 2008. This is one of those albums that is quite hard to describe. It's a metal album but there are definite grunge influences here too as well as more modern groove metal influences. The album has a lot of variety which shows lots of different influences (Tool and Queens of the stone ages for instance). Vocally it ranges from clean singing to a more screaming style. I can imagine these songs sounding pretty damn impressive live - they sound great here on the album, but deserve to be played at deafeningly loud volume to get the most out of them. An impressive album that’s well worth a listen. The Nine is out now. - FestivalPhoto.net

These Canadian rockers open the album with a cacophony of grunge sounding guitars and these Canadian rockers then go for your knee caps and drag you through barbed wire into a heavy toil of molten groove, grunge sounding metal, as 'The Salem Parade' sets you up for a blistering metal journey. 'The Little Pariah' crashes into existence and wreaks havoc in your mind this is quite an insane number with an excellent ending. 'Philistine' continues the intensity that this band deliver in tons of molten metal, just love the deep riffs. 'Another Conspiracy' is tense and prickly, as is the brilliant meandering 'Stuck in Time'. Without a doubt and probably the best overall number on here is the smacking 'Argue and Grin'. This one rages out of your speakers and seriously gets into your head as the splitting chords abound and destroy. 'The Chelsea Smile' spirals and grooves and batters your eardrums. 'Hand Me down Virtue' is a lighter track on 'The Nine', but having said that, it still batters your senses as the song gets going, with its penetrating guitars. 'Pretentious' is grooving, intense metal where the band excel even more than you would think possible and show why they have been getting such rave reviews and making a huge noise in Canada. Final track 'Sentimental Enterprise' opens with bizarre sounding keyboards and reminded me straight away of Hawkwind! Then the guitars launch in, a really different number compared to anything else on here and thankfully not as long as some Hawkwind tracks! It’s hard to really pigeon hole this band, they ain't grunge, they ain't metal, they are everything combined and more! 'Nine' is a great album and if you haven't heard of these Canadian rockers, I am sure you and the world will soon. - The Mayfair Mallzine

It’s funny how the mind gets biased just by reading the country of origin in a band’s bio. And yes, I also fell in this trap after reading that HARM come from Canada, since I was expecting something close to the old school Thrash that this country is so famous in the Metal scene (I hope the young metalheads share the same knowledge). Anyway, guessing the music style before hitting the play button is just a way to have fun before getting your hands dirty and actually listening to the album in question. Everything became crystal clear with the album opener “The Salem Parade” that I think carries a modern US Metal groove sound. One can track down some Corey Taylor singing influences or even mention Chris Cornell’s name going hand in hand with the Grunge guitars. It’s true that Grunge is not a music tag all the old school metalheads like to use as it is believed that the Seattle scene was responsible for the decline of Metal especially in the US. But the good thing with HARM is the heavier sound than the aforementioned scene granting them access to the METAL KAOZ reviews section. Listening closer you will identify some PANTERA finishing touches in the groovy guitar rhythms and the scattered vibrato action. Steve Sharpen has a nice timbre doing justice to the modern sound of HARM while keeping a connection with James Hetfield’s singing style of the “St. Anger” era. Take for example “Little Pariah” with the hard hitting and addictive tempo based on the down-tuned guitars and the almost “Sweete Amber” groove. The drums’ organic sound (great high hat action) fuels the band’s energy that is successfully captured in the recording in question and let’s see if you can stay still during the guitar solo that climaxes the song. Even though I am not a die-hard fan to whatever is branded as modern here in the States, HARM seem to have sugarcoated their music with Metal aesthetics to that extent that I don’t have a problem listening to “The Nine” after having mention TOOL and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE in the band’s influences as showcased in songs like “Hand Me Down Virtue” and “The Chelsea Smile”. After all, if something is well-played, then it’s kind of stupid to excommunicate it only because there are such references. “The Nine” has its tanks filled with fuel waiting to be burnt during every HARM concert. The recording feels natural with captivating and driving grooves, perfect to channel the listener’s energy and give him a peace of mind. It is also evident that HARM have the skills to push their envelope even further and make the music sound heavier, giving more space to the guitar work that really shines during leads and solos. In the meantime, crank the volume to the maximum and let HARM explode in your audio system. I guess it’s almost impossible for Canada to let me down when it comes to Metal. 7/10 - Metal Kaoz