4 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Jack Endino

So, although I initially bought this for the These Arms Are Snakes tracks, it’s Harkonen that ends up ruling the day.  This was a transition point for TAAS between the post-punkier ‘Antelope’ album and the noise masterpiece ‘Easter’, so while their tracks on this EP – tracks 1 and 3 – have a heightened sense of energy, they still suffer from a bit of the shapelessness that made their first album somewhat inaccessible to me on the first few listens.  Whereas Harkonen had already ditched the more straight-forward rock elements of their Grizz EP and had honed the low-end rumble of their hardcore attack.  I guess their two tracks (2 and 4) don’t really change the formula too much, but the band knew where to use space on their album “Shake Harder,” and they seem to know to cut the clutter here and just get on with the thomp.  That being said, ‘Hook on This’ is one of my favorite TAAS songs, if it is a bit straight-forward lyrically, because it’s one of the few where they just straight up punk out from beginning to end.

And double that being said, those first four tracks are such a bundle of head-banging that my blood pumps at ‘5 out of 5’ levels for the eleven or twelve minutes they take up.  BUT, even though these two faves of my joining up for the last track is like a dream come true, and jumping from Steve Snere’s spoken snarl to Verellen’s throaty yell for verse and chorus sounds great, the two styles don’t actually mesh super well, two ships meeting and colliding, some cargo getting tossed overboard.  It’s a fun experiment, and probably cool to see on stage, but it feels like the odd man out on this otherwise energized EP.