Harm’s Way: Do They Live Up to the Hype?

Metal dudes that grew up on hardcore have been buzzing intensely about Harm’s Way lately. I checked out some of their older material and couldn’t really connect with it, but with a new album comes new opportunity — Rust comes out March 10th via Deathwish, so let’s check it out.

“Law of the Land” makes its premier on Noisey today, and it’s embedded below. Those are some giant-sized, burly manly-man riffs, and the track is insatiably heavy. Kurt Ballou’s production offers just the right amount of heft and finesse, that mix of punch and clarity for which he’s become known. As someone who grew up on Ozzy and Metallica and other capital-M Metal bands, I can’t quite relate to this type of hardcore-based metal the way someone who grew up on Minor Threat, Ink and Dagger or even Converge probably would. This is not simply a case of me being old — I listen to hundreds of new metal bands that I write about on this site all the time.. it’s just a matter of taste. Still, I definitely dig this track. I’ll bet these guys are ridiculously intense live, and I look forward to checking them out in that setting to see how the music translates there.

So: what do you think? Worth the hype?

Also, very important question: is there an apostrophe in the band’s name or not?? I’ve seen it typeset both ways. The official stream below lacks an apostrophe, but not having one in there makes zero sense. HALP!