While Australia definitely has its fair share of thrash
bands, there aren’t too many that have really caught my interest beyond a
couple of initial listens. It is safe to say that Melbourne’s Harlott changed
all of that with their debut record, “Origin”. Be forewarned: this album does
absolutely nothing innovative, but thrash has never been about reinventing the
wheel. Instead, “Origin” delivers some of the more impressive riffs and songs
that thrash has seen this year. Songs is a key word there, as there are quite a
few tracks on “Origin” that stand out beyond the typical monotonous blur of
extremely fast and aggressive thrash. The title track is just one of many
standouts, highlighted it’s catchy chorus that shows vocalist Andrew Hudson displaying
some very rare hints of melody in his performance. Instead, he often spends
much of his time spouting out words at rapid fire pace, such as on “Effortless
Struggle”, and especially on “Ballistic”. This latter track is the band’s
finest moment. It does an impressive job matching up to Slayer’s “Necrophobic”
and the end of “Postmortem” in terms of the sheer speed of the vocal delivery. If
you crave hyper-fast thrash like Fastkill, this track will definitely appeal to
you.
These first three songs do a great job setting the tone for
the entire record. While the songwriting is impressive, what makes “Origin”
special is how tight the rhythm playing is. There are a lot of thrash bands out
there that play at unreal speeds, but they can often be quite sloppy (such as
many early Brazilian bands). Even the tightest of thrash bands often avoid the
speeds that Harlott maintains on “Origin”. The rhythms are so technically
proficient and complex that my picking hand tires just thinking about how to
play them. Of course, this precision requires that the drumming be equally
impressive, and it truly is. The machine gun rhythms that Harlott play on this
album are greatly accented by the production. The guitar tone is incredibly
crunchy during chunkier riffs, while it manages to be piercing throughout
tremolo-picked sections (see the chorus of “Heirophobia” for a great example of
both sounds). Surprisingly, the drums are dialed back a bit in the mix, which
is effective at these speeds. Often times bands that play this fast get old
quickly because of the loudness and pingy snare sound, but this isn’t the case
on “Origin”.
If one were to really nitpick this album, it is possible to
find a flaw. For one thing, even at 40 minutes, “Origin” would benefit from
being a bit shorter. This style of thrash can be hard to digest for even short
periods of time. Even though the songwriting is pretty consistent throughout,
it wouldn’t be hard to cut a few of the 12 tracks to get things to a more
manageable length. Nonetheless, there isn’t a boring moment on this album, and
for a first effort, it is extremely promising. This is a record that’s going to
appeal to pretty much all thrash fans, and even though it is by a newer band,
it doesn’t feel like one of those “new wave of thrash” records, as everything
from the album art, to the lyrics, and even the sound is a bit more serious
than many of Harlott’s contemporaries. Either way, it is hard to imagine any fans of thrash not enjoying this record.
Highlights
"Origin"
"Ballistic"
"Export Life"
"Heirophobia"
Final Rating
4.6/5 or 92%.