24th April 2023

Review: “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore” by Harroway

Produced mixed and mastered by Mark Williamson at Keywork Audio (Inertia, Closure, After Touch), the debut EP “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore” from Sydney Metalcore quintet Harroway is nothing if not a glimpse into the lives of both vocalist Matt Banks and guitarist Josh Gemmal. The pair survived going through adolescence and early adulthood not understanding what was causing the chaos in their lives before being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), their experiences captured within the five cuts that offer catharsis, representing a passage to finding inner peace while searching for answers…

…If you enjoyed “Alien” by Northlane then the sound of “Origin” will be one easily embraced with its dark electronics and crushing thunderously dense riffage. Intertwining clean and unclean vocals spiral as the DNA of the band, both working incredibly well as the dominoes fall in the bands favour. If anything as an opener goes it feels a little short, the violent turbulence something you could easily enjoy for another verse and chorus. That makes way for the heavy hitting “Parasite“, a cut which reaches up and touches the void into Deathcore and DJent with its tsunami like power. Floating into Nu-Metal territory there is a rapped verse that is reminiscent of bands like Ten56 before spine juddering breakdown sections and dark angular riffs are fuel for the mosh pit. Menacing and sinister, this one is a horror movie soundscape only broken by fleeting moments of clean vocals that ensure the melodic threats of life that the band hold dear aren’t lost in the chaos. “Burn It All” then dials into that melodic side with aching clean vocals and electronics building up to a powerful sing-a-long chorus that is seriously impressive in terms of musicianship for a band so young. Enthralling and captivating while being surprisingly heavy, its easy to get carried away on this thrill ride.

Bringing back the Nu with distorted rapping, the swirling dark moods of “Impulse” are an ode to binging and purging in the face of stress and strain, cleverly pieced together with elements you’ve heard before but not quite like this. Another one which could happily play on for another verse and chorus, this ends on a downtempo note that you want to continue on. “Once More”, the effective title track, makes for the most diverse of the offerings here. Acoustic guitars and brutal unclean vocals building up through ambient programming into a rich soundscape of orchestration and electronics it then puts the hammer down with the savage roar of “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore!“. Resonating with anyone who has suffered anxiety or depression, it floats as a dance with death, a magnum opus that distances itself from some of the elements the band put to good use earlier on and instead offering a whole new method of annihilation. Ethereal touches and swirling moods push the boundaries of the listener as the wave of emotion rises and falls before a “Bleigh!” moment brings it home with a brutal DJent fuelled breakdown in the closing sections. You need this more than you know because as debuts go, this is astounding [8.5/10]

Track Listing