Harkonen: Shake Harder Boy

Hydra Head Records By Joseph Lorenzo Hall

As soon as I heard the words "Harkonen" and "hardcore" together in the same sentence, I was intrigued. Why? Well, "Harkonen" is one "n" away from Harkonnen, as in House Harkonnen, the bad guys in Frank Herbert's epic science-fiction classic, Dune. These were the really nasty leather-wearing, planet-pilfering, pus-filled sort of bad guys who lived on a lifeless black planet.

And who doesn't like hardcore punk rock? In recent years, new forms and mutations of this genre have appeared with bands like Anasarca and the Red Scare on the East coast and Godheadsilo and Drive Like Jehu over here in the West. Picking up a piece of that meme, Harkonen from Tacoma, Washington, is an example of non-traditional modern hardcore.

In a broad stroke, Harkonen blends unforgiving metal and the ferocity of hardcore punk into a sound that feels like running off of a steep cliff. This House Harkonen is made up of Matt Howard (Bass), Casey Hardy (Guitar) and Ben Verellen (Drums). In the tradition of good hardcore, the members of Harkonen are highly technical and odd timings, Sonic Youth-like droning and precision progressions are plentiful.

My own definition of hardcore is simple: if the band sounds like they are playing as if their lives depended on it, that's hardcore. Harkonen pass this litmus test with flying colors. Shake Harder Boy is half an hour of trance-like hardcore that is as unforgiving as rock solid. Shake Harder Boy finds these guys having fun and rocking steady. These songs sound like a recruiting program for a sonic mercenary army.

The off-and-on march of "We've Come for Your Daughters" is remarkable. Two songs even appear to be audience comments on the band's name; "All This Time I Thought Your Name Was Cool Dude (But I Was Wrong)" and simply "Your Name is Shit."

Solid Neurosis influences bleed through many of the tracks on Shake Harder Boy. Opposing screaming voices like that on "Settle Here" as well as woven guitar progressions the likes of "The Burly Spur" and "Caseydriver" will be familiar sounds to Neurosis fans.

"Baristas Get Stalked" is my favorite tune, hands down. The composition is clever, the power raw and the track even swings in that way that only good hardcore bands can. I'd like to think that this track has something to do with stalking Starbucks patrons.

Observers and critics seem quick to label Harkonen as "progressive hardcore." If progressive means that they aren't afraid to insert some slow bars in their songs, than Harkonen are "progressive." I like my storms with a little calm in between them and that's exactly what Harkonen do.

Incidentally, I asked Ben Verellen if they spelled their name different because of copyright or trademark reasons or to be separated from the legions of Dune nerds out there on the Internet, and he said, "[...] the name is really meaningless, it just has a ring to it, I guess. You know, I think we just originally misspelled the word by accident".

So much for dark dreams of war, vengeance and black planets.