HARKONIN BIOGRAPHY
With the release of their third studio album "Ghanima", St. Louis, Missouri's Harkonin (est. 2001) have taken genre-bending extreme metal to a new level. Proud to wear their formative influences on their collective sleeve, Harkonin successfully bend Black Metal, Death Metal, and Thrash to their will. Building on the success of their critically acclaimed 2005 release "Sermons Of Anguish", Harkonin have taken all the anger therein and added a tight focus on songwriting, producing songs like the relentless "Nocturnal Rebirth", the hammering stab at betrayal "Lost Cause", and the nine-minute Viking epic "Sons Of War". Taking more than three months to record & mix, "Ghanima" is rife with what has become trademark Harkonin riffery coupled with a larger-than-life sound. "Ghanima"-era Harkonin is making a statement that anyone who listens won't soon forget.
INTERVIEWS
Harkonin/Eulogy nterview with Clayton (July 2006) for Putrefactive Effect 'zineInterview (January 2006) for Dark Recollections webzine
Interview (January 2006) for Heavy Frequency, "Frequency of the Month"
Interview (09 Nov 2005) for RiverFront Times | PDF scan of the article in print (including cover, 729k)
Interview (02 Aug 2005) for NecroMetal webzine
List of some bands we've had the pleasure of playing with:
Satyricon, 3 Inches Of Blood, Dismember, Grave, Vital Remains, Dimiricous, Fog, Exhumed, Uphill Battle, Macabre, Therion, Withered, Condemned, Deaden, Destruction, Into Eternity, Municipal Waste
PRESS
Harkonin - Ghanima"Meaner and more ambitious than anything Harkonin has done to date, Ghanima bristles and slays with inventive songwriting, drop-dead-killer riffing and the jawdropping drumwork of Clayton Gore. From the blistering vitriol of "L.ost C.ause" to the sardonic cruelty of "Caligula" to the epic "Sons of War," Harkonin have never sounded better — or more determined to bang your head. They've honed their blackened thrash sword down to a wickedly sharp edge. Glorious and profane, Ghanima is the finest metal album to come out of St. Louis. Ever."
- Paul Friswold for the Riverfront Times, 2006 Year In Music -
Harkonin - Ghanima
"Although St. Louis, Missouri hardly has a thriving metal scene, it does have a handful of dedicated and consistent metal bands that always seem to surface when a national tour comes through. Such is the case when I covered a recent Dismember/Vital Remains/Grave/Withered show at the Creepy Crawl where one of the opening acts and one of the surprise bands of the night was Harkonin, who I had heard about, but had just never caught at my local metal haunt.
Playing an incredibly competent form of tight, thrashy blackened war metal that has tangible influences (both musically and production wise) somewhere between Angelcorpse, Darkthrone (as their rendition of "In the Shadow of the Horns" that night showed), Forest Of Impaled, Epoch of Unlight, Aeturnus and and Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, this Mid Missouri four piece shows they are able to play with the big boys on there third full length record.
With the high pitched but restrained rasps of Jason Barron spewing forth titles like "Firechrist", "Dogs of Lucifer", "Sons Of War", "Hellspawn", "Cult of Sin" and "Mystic Gates of Sorrow", black metal is the over arching permeating presence, but the guitar work of Matt Coyle and drums of Clayton Gore belie a much more thrash based attack which blends well altogether. The song writing does a good job of mixing Occult black metal ("Mystical gates of Sorrow") and primal blasts ("Nocturnal Birth"), but Harkonin is more effective when delivering one of their more varied, many lurching war marches such as the epic "Caligula" or "Sons of War" which show at their best, Harkonin are a far above average underground American black metal act.
As a bonus, Ghanima comes with 7 re-recorded tracks from the band’s Sermons of Anguish self released effort including a cover of Whiplash’s "Last Man Alive" and one of the band’s best tracks (and fan favorites based on what I saw in concert), "Destined to Conquer".
Not only is it great to hear a promising, quality American black metal release that isn’t one man droning, but a local band at that. Good stuff, and nice blokes too. Thanks for the shirt lads."
- Erik Thomas for Digital Metal -
Harkonin - Ghanima
"Harkonin make the wise decision of not having their primary influences made explicit on either their website or their Myspace page. So, while I can't take the easy way out and provide hand delivered references in this review, there are also some points in this review where I feel like I'm definitely privy to some honest, individualist, and unsigned American death/black metal.
Firsts things first, this fucker is unrelenting. And, I don't mean that in the run of the mill press-package sense of the word. Ghanima comprises nine original songs, all but two of which are longer than five minutes. And there are spare moments when the BPMs drop below 400. The riffing reminds me primarily of fellow American aggro-blasters Summon or Angel Corpse. But, more than just intense, these songs are well written and filled to the brim with riffs that reference Bathory, Dissection, Kreator, Beneath the Remains-era Sepultura, and of more recent acts like Hate Eternal and Internal Suffering. They also each possess an indefatigable forward momentum. Rarely do these songs rest on their laurels, and riff repetition is used only when defining a theme.
The attention payed to riff writing is the real draw here. Not only do these songs pour over with riffs, they pour over with well written and intelligent riffs. There's no knuckle-dragging reliance on well-worn tremolo picking, and instead guitarist Matt Coyle pulls from a diverse stock of styles that send him all over the death and black metal map. And, most satisfyingly, brass knuckled breakdowns, the kind which Sepultura mastered on Beneath the Remains and Arise, show up on a few tracks for a welcome change of pace from the constant battering these marathon tracks deliver. Solos are rarely featured on Ghanima, but the musicianship is so above board that they're hardly missed, and Coyle does display a fractured sense of melody that serves as a fine place holder that is far more suitable for this record than guitar histrionics.
The production is aces for an unsigned band. There's plenty of separation between each instrument, which allows the hammering performance of the drums and contrapuntal efforts of the bass to cut right through the mix.
Also included on this disc are six remixes of older Harkonin cuts and a Whiplash cover that offers a glimpse into this band's past, and prove that a record label is well past due for this poser-proof outfit. But, while the labels may shun hard-hitting and not-so image-conscious bands during metal's current mainstream resurgence, you can still vote with your dollar and pick up Ghanima from the band's website. I suggest you do, because this shit kills."
- Dave Fonseca for Metal Review -
Harkonin - Ghanima
"Some of the best different (if not original) black metal from the USA that I have heard for a long time, Harkonin really stand for interesting black metal music. Death and thrash metal influences are apparent throughout the nine new songs of this album (which appears to be the band’s third release) but that aside Ghanima is not easy to describe. I’m often reminded of old Immortal albums but some songs such as the multi-structured Sons of War are a complete different story, delivering some unexpected epic / Viking metal music. The song-writing of this band is top class and every one of the nine tracks features its own identity. The references are quite obvious but that does not denigrate in any way the quality of the music and for my opinion this album deserves way more recognition than most of the releases recorded by nowadays big-sellers. One of the bonus tracks is a Whiplash cover "Last Man Alive" which fits like a glove. I like this album and if you want to check some very efficient death thrash influenced black metal music, just give it a try. Satisfaction guaranteed."
- Patricia for Pull The Chain 'zine -
BEST METAL BAND - HARKONIN (3rd Consecutive Win)
Harkonin earned "Best Metal Band" honors each of the past two years, but instead of resting on that skull-decorated throne, the quartet engineered a massive 2006. The group cleaned up its 2005 album Sermons of Anguish, ensuring that its bleak guitar tones ring with blatant menace and its vocals communicate malicious intent without having to slice through a mire. (Black-metal bands once took pride in their brutally awful production, but with pioneers such as Darkthrone and Satyricon remastering their back catalogues, pristine is the new muddy.) In July Harkonin released its third full-length disc, Ghanima, which will require no retroactive polish. Singer Jason Barron's Hades-spawned hiss epitomizes evil, but he enunciates clearly, ensuring that all within earshot learn the secrets of the "Mystic Gates of Sorrow." Propelled by an unrepentantly rock & roll rhythm section, Harkonin is the rare black-metal group that sounds right at home in Midwestern bars.
- Riverfront Times, "Best of 2006" -
Harkonin - Ghanima
"Harkonin are what I to believe to be one of the more interesting metal acts in the area. With the fusion of thrash/death/black metal, without coming off as cheesy, can be hard to accomplish, as we have all heard bands try and fail. They remind me of of the great bands like Venom, Kreator, and even a bit of Mayhem (especially live when they do the blood/corpsepaint ).
Anyone who was worried whether the production and mixing of this album was going to be, well to put it bluntly, as amateur as Sermons of Aingush, need not worry. This new one, recorded and mixed by Matt Coyle, guitarist of the band, is drastically different. He has apparently learned some new tricks, 'cause the guitar tone (my biggest problem with Sermons) was a million times better this time around. Very full and rich at the same time, just sounds brutal. That however is not the only thing better, just one of the few improvements I have heard while listening to Ghanima.
This album seriously kills, from the first song, "Mystic Gates of Sorrow", til the last track, aptly titled "Sons of War" (an ode to Vikings and their Norse Pagan gods Odin and Thor). I have’t stopped listening to this since I have obtained it, and it has a permanent spot in my ipod for sure. Also happy to hear a keyboard, even if only for one song.
Standout tracks are "Caligula", "Epitaph", "The Darkside Calls", and my personal favorite "Nocturnal Rebirth". The drums on this album are very punchy and lovely enough, audible. Clayton seems to have finally fallen completely into the bands percussion section. Everything is super tight with the band on this release, which was also something lacking on Sermons.
The vocal work on this album is as volatile (and I mean that in a good way) as it is tasteful (I mean that to be a good thing as well). Screeching growls and bombastic screams with enough adrenaline-inducing pheromones to put you into a slight metal coma, won't kill you, but you may feel a little light headed. Please see your doctor if this persists. Lyrically the songs are exactly what you'd expect (evil, war, Paganism, etc.), except they actually look like they were written by someone with some actual knowledge and ability to use the English language.
The guitar work on the new songs is just as impressive as anything they have put out, if not better. Much more mature sound, more evolved and powerful. The songs seem to envelop you into a world where metal was fast, hard, and unrelenting. When metal was all that mattered, and life was a hell of a lot of easier.
Although Harkonin bring forth some of the most heavy and brutal black/death/thrash metal around, they are still a breath of fresh air for me. Nice to hear a band doing music that they love, that is honest, and that assaults the senses like aerosol battery acid: First you smell it, kind makes you twitch your nose a little, then all of a sudden your face melts off."
- Randy Kish for GTP-INC -
Harkonin - Sermons Of Anguish
"Harkonin churn out potent, primitive USDM from the heart-land -- Missouri. Another act that bridges straightforward thrash/death with influxes of cold blackness, Sermons Of Anguish is the band's third full-length. I don't think they attest to developing a new breed of sound, but rather wear their influences with pride and attack with a truly hostile nature. The cackling vocalist howls with gritty might. Hanuting guitar passages link its DM rage with subtle ambience while the bass player surges with inexorable energy and diversifies his lines from the guitarists'. The overall intensity of the disc walks a coke-razor thin line between black, death and thrash for the entirety of the impressive 36-minute barrage. If you get sucked into the hellish assaults of Impiety, Arkhon Infaustus or Occult, submit and be inundated in the wickedness that is Harkonin."
- Metal Maniacs, Vol. 23, No. 2, February 2006 -
Sermons Of Anguish - 7/10
"Blackened thrash from St. Louis, Harkonin suffers from a lackluster recording, however the music is strong enough to surpass such a major obstacle. The intro is a tad too long at 2:14 but once things get going with "Beneath the Rubble", evil begins to rear its head. Seething vocals atop angered melody have a certain attractiveness to them that requires further investigation. Devoid of keyboards, its quick pace and lively framework thickens this attack. Burrowed in the depths of darkness, this quartet closes the album with an unlisted, albeit blistering cover of "Last Man Alive" by Whiplash. Given the proper exposure, these guys could create quite a buzz for themselves."
- Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, issue #92, November 2005 (PDF scan of the review (including cover, 342k)) -
BEST METAL BAND - HARKONIN (2nd Consecutive Win)
A Sunday evening at 6:30 is not the coveted slot on a bill for a metal band, especially at the Duck Room. No offense to the Duck, but cheerful mallard decoys and tasteful lithographs don't provide the optimum ambiance for blasphemous war metal. Factor in that Lael Clark, guitarist and founding member of Harkonin, is no longer in the band and that the RFT Music Awards Showcase crowd skews a little too good-timey and ironic for Harkonin's style of sincere, soul-crushing hate and you have the makings of a very bad scene. Harkonin specializes in bad scenes. Vokillist Jason Baron eyed the crowd sullenly, grunted a pint of blood down the front of his shirt and strafed the room with croaking invocations of fury. Bassist Tom Quach and drummer Clayton Gore strapped on hobnail boots and crushed rib cages with triple-time thuds. Matt Coyle throttled a maelstrom out of sixsixsix strings, summoning excoriating howls that flayed faces and charred souls. Two diehards created the nucleus of a pit while half the crowd headed aboveground. The half that remained was baptized in the blackest fires of Hell, courtesy of our masters, our tormentors, our warlords. Hail Harkonin!
- Riverfront Times, "Best of 2005" -
Sermons Of Anguish - 9.5/10
"Harkonin began with the idea of bringing a different style of Black Metal to their impoverished St. Louis, Missouri metal scene. Harkonin have managed to create something great here a blend of Thrash/Black Metal it makes for a very unique and interesting concept and a non-boring album. I have seen a lot of great new stuff coming out of the Missouri area and this another great effort from there neck of the grim forest (cheesy black metal joke). There is a lot of Thrash influence more over the Black Metal aspect, but the vocalist and drums hit that that aspect perfectly to not disappoint the Black Metal fan.
The cd starts you off with an intro entering you into the battle of which these dudes have in stored for your listening pleasure. From start to finish the sound quality is excellent and very well done for an independent album. Yes that's right kids black Metal doesn't always have to sound like shit to be evil or grim this is a great album without that bullshit clichés so many bands think they have to follow to be cool. The drumming and vocals are great example of Black Metal at its best fast evil blast beats and to the point of the song. The vocals are surprisingly clear and catchy that mesh really well with the songs, you can hear all the lyrics thank you. The bass and guitar work show the Thrash side of this band blending these together is not small feet the timing and placement of leads and riff changes are really well done. To maybe best describe there sound is something hard to say since the go back and forth so much in the songs but to me it sounds a little like if you had Immortal, Agathodaimon, Coroner and Whiplash playing together within one band you would get maybe a Harkonin like sound. The tracks that really sold me on this band and got me off my ass and doing my personal mosh which not many have witnessed are "Heksenbränd" "Firechrist" and "Destined To Conquer" all has catchy melody and killer leads and riffs threw out. The final track is a fucking killer cover of Whiplash - Last Man Alive they make this song there own very well played and kind of puts Whiplash to shame with there sound, I'm glad they put this on here it really shows there range of ability.
Over all this cd is has killer production and sounds are awesome. If your looking for a blend of styles and an interesting sound check this band out they will not disappoint you. I can't wait to hear what they guys come up with next album release. I would like to see more solos thrown in on the tracks but it might mess up what there trying to achieve with the mix of Thrash/Black Metal, so for now it's excellent for what they pulled off.
- Esoteric ED, NecroMetal.com, August 2005 -
Harkonin - Sermons Of Anguish - 3.5/5
"After years of slumming through the Midwest, it was good to see this long-running USBM act finally find their sound, and make good on the promise of their earlier releases.
Harkonin take the blackened foundations of Bathory and Mayhem, and blend it with the more venomous thrash of bands like Whiplash, Kreator, and Sacrifice to full effect. I listen to this, and I picture band members who actually own—and listen to—stuff like Tormentor, Necrodeath, and Coven. In other words, like a lot of Blackened Thrash bands, they clearly listen to a lot of older albums—but only the ones that you’re not cool or cult enough to own. I’m happy to report that this is gleefully poser-free, and smiling directly at you with a fork.
The leads are great, and the vocals are fierce. Frontman Jason Barron has an excellent rasp for war, and a good deal of charisma. Unlike a lot of Black Metal frog and muppet voices, Jason seems to have a firm grasp of his genre roots, recalling Bathory and early Marduk moreso than his more Norwegian-inspired grim-throated peers. It’s probably one of the few occasions on an underground Black Metal release where I thought the vocals actually stood out.
The guitarwork is fine, particularly on tracks like "Beneath The Rubble" and "Firechrist", and the soloing is excellent; unfortunately, the guitars are the one thing that seem buried in the mix—ironic, since this disc was produced by axeman Coyle. This band has a knack for riffs; they need to be more up front in the mix. If anything, this remains my sole point of contention on this album—this needed a thicker rhythm sound, a few more layers in the mix. A band this thrashy and mayhemic would benefit from a second guitarist.
The drumming here is dented by a similar malady—skinsman Clayton Gore is certainly proficient, but the production fails to capture the power of the beats. It’s a common flaw on indie discs, and I wouldn’t let it hinder you from picking this one up.
In this sense, the production is a little thin; but the creativity is copious, and the effect highly pronounced. This band has personality, and more charisma points than your character sheet will allow. The pacing is strictly hit and miss, but the songs themselves are ready for battle, to war against the saints. "Devil’s Rain" and "Firechrist" are standouts, though the crunch and plod of triumph makes "Destined To Conquer" this record’s strongest track. "Dogs Of Lucifer" reminded me of many of Black Metal’s better years. It’s moments like these that Harkonin can compete with anything in the scene. Opener "Into The Hailstorms Of Revelations" is well-enough composed, but could have been a little faster, more direct. Some of these songs could have been shortened, or driven even faster. If anything, that: this band needs to quicken the pace a bit, and reign in blood with quicker bursts—songs like "Devil’s Rain" and "Destined To Conquer" are the key; these tracks represent everything this band excels at.
If I were an A&R guy, I’d say this band is one EP away from being ready for "the big deal", be it with the Devil, or with Moribund; this band could, live, hold their own against Wind Of The Black Mountains or Winter Of Apokalypse any day. The house of Harkonin is a cult waiting to happen, and I predict the next CD will be the one to know them by."
- Gabriel C. Zolman, Meal-Rules.com -
Sermons Of Anguish
"Sermons of Anguish is the sophmore studio album from Missouri's own Harkonin. Known for their thrash, keyboard free take on USBM, Harkonin made a name for themselves with their debut Seductress of the Unlight. With Sermons of Anguish they welcome some new members to the band and focus their energy on creating raw, primitive black metal worthy of praise from even the most critical black metal fan.
Right from the start, you know this album is going to fucking kill, because the opening intro is nothing more than marching drums and machine gun fire, perhaps symbolizing the band's take of old vs. new. After the intro kicks out, the band churns out slow, thick riffs fused with the drumming of Clayton Gore (first time Gore is featured on a studio album for the band). Gore's drumming really makes this album a "USBM" album, as compared to the relative simplicity of raw norwegian acts. The technical style of drumming can probably be attributed to Clayton's history as a death metal drummer during the nineties. This isn't to say that there is a death metal influence in the music, as the entire band focuses on the relative traditionalism of black metal, as opposed to the constant evolving and ever technical aspects of death metal.
Guitarist Matt Coyle really shows his ability on this album; going from fuzzy, droning riffs to lightning fast blitzkrieg attacks, sometimes on the same song. I think his guitar could of had a more prominent low end, since you can hear his high pitched riffs perfectly fine, yet the low pitched riffs seem to get lost in the drums and bass. A perfect example of this is in the song "Firechrist", during the chorus. The low end just seems to drop out, yet the little melody line sounds beautiful and completely seperate from the rest of the band.
The thrash influence is blatantly obvious on the song "Heksenbränd", where the band opens up with a duel between guitar slides and drum explosions, finally ending with the bass jumping in for an all out little thrash fest for a good fifteen seconds. Then the song slows down, and the entire band falls in line for one excellent headbanger. If "Heksenbränd" doesn't convince you that there is a strong thrash feel to the band, just listen to their cover of "Last Man Alive" (originally done by the legendery Whiplash). If one didn't know any better, one would be inclined to think it was an original Harkonin song.
Sometimes it sounds like the band is the bastard child of Immortal, with songs like "Destined to Conquer" sounding like rare Immortal tracks that never made it to an album. "Destined to Conquer" fuses the lightning quick blastbeats and melody lines perfectly, just like the old albums of Immortal.
Really, it's amazing that these guys aren't signed yet. Not that they have any difficulty funding and managing themselves. They've put out three albums (one live) since their inception in 2002. I guess there are some bands that just get overlooked. Hell, Ulysses Siren never made it, yet they put out two exceptional demos. I would definitely recommend that you pick this slab of black metal up. Not only will you be supporting a great independent band, you'll also be getting a great album that you can both headbang to and brood over with!"
- Shovel for AllThingsMetal.net, July 2005 -
BEST METAL BAND - HARKONIN
Black metal, a subgenre of extreme music that's often best known for the Satanic, pagan antics of some of its more infamous figures (beheading lambs onstage, killing people -- that sort of thing), normally originates in the dark northern climes of Scandinavia. In a place where the sun doesn't come out all winter, it makes sense for the native music to be just as dark. St. Louis' own Harkonin brings a bit of Scandinavia right here to the humid banks of the Mississippi. Influenced by the seminal bands of the genre, Harkonin adds its own Midwestern rock influence to the blast beats and Teutonic thrash riffs to form intricate but accessible epics of violence. Singer Jason Barron's unique shriek is the most terrifying sound on the current local music scene. He's passed it on to the younger generation -- his young son joined Harkonin onstage to take the mic at this year's RFT Music Showcase, and it was awesome.
- Riverfront Times, "Best of 2004" -