Detest

Labelling Harkonin’s fourth release Detest as mere black metal doesn’t really do justice. Instead, a more fitting term would be something like technical death / black metal in the vein of The Legion: continously wandering music in different tempos with little surprises, vocals ranging from high-pitched screams to low growls, and an always prevalent malicious atmosphere, though Harkonin does implement more melody to their music, ”Chaos Anthem” being a good example among others.

In general, Detest does its job successfully: it grabs your attention well enough and the production is pretty top-notch. But when I start to search for features that would make Detest above any other album in this field, and when I realize the album runs for over an hour, I am not so convinced anymore.

For sure, Harkonin comprises professional musicians, everything is executed with tight precision, sounding evil and strong, but the same time I would have loved to hear something more daring, something that would’ve made Detest sound slightly different from all the rest. After all, we’re not dealing with any superb riffs and melodies here, everything is compositionally on the average line, perhaps slightly above the usual standard of modern metal. A song like ”Insurrection” is a real treat to ears and makes me wish the rest of the album was made with same energy.

Remembering the long running time and the challening technical elements, Detest requires many listens, and perhaps if I had listened to this a few times more before reviewing (I think I’m on my third or fourth run right now), my rating would have gone slightly up, so keep that in mind when viewing my score. Recommendable for fans of death/black mixtures with modern technicality therein.

2.5 / 5
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Review Originally publlished at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

I’ve always been partial to promoting local (Missouri) bands, especially talented ones like O’Fallon’s black metal tribe Harkonin. Now fittingly signed to Australia’s Battlegod Productions, Harkonin have released the follow-up to 2006′s solid Ghanima, complete with topnotch artwork and packaging. The end result shows a more controlled and mature band, replete with more of an emphasis on thrash and mid-tempo black/war metal.

Though still rooted in a Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Aeternus lurch with dashes of mid-era Darkthrone and newer, nicer Immortal, Harkonin is still a black/war metal act at heart, even with Jason Barron’s emphasis on deeper/layered vocals. There are some tremolo picked, urgent blasts scattered around the album, but for the most part the album mixes elements and mainly canters and rumbles with much more of a lengthy, controlled black/thrash ― though not the brittle, punky beer’n'spikes sort.

The first three tracks (“Into Oblivion”, “Ruled by Tyrants” and sturdy “Chaos Anthem”) alone highlight the band’s thicker, more lumbering sound; no gothic synths, no frills, just gritty, earthy riffs. That being said, I do prefer when the band take a little more varied, nasty, urgent and death/blackness to heart. The likes of the 7-minute “Insurrection”, the rangy 10-minute “Black Storm Jackals”, last part of “Spiritual Hypnosis” and the feral “Exhauster of Souls” are all inspiring.

Though the more straightforward thrash based riffing certainly has some appeal as heard on the already mentioned opening trio and “The Sleeper Has Awakened”, but I just prefer the evil snarls as opposed to the sneers that the band blends. Luckily, the album’s last two tracks “”Disease” and “Detest” meld the two styles perfectly, with “Detest” even throwing some nice melodies into the mix.

Rounded out by a tight production and some solid drumming from Clayton Gore, Detest is a extremely satisfying, but not quite spectacular, blue collar, Midwest extreme metal album from an honest, dedicated (this is the band’s fifth release since 2003 in a pretty barren St. Louis scene) down to earth group of guys just wanting to play solid metal: Mission accomplished.