ECHOES

Track extracts:

MAGAZINE / INTERNET REVIEWS

What’s happened here? A page has turned, a new chapter in the journal of metal, emo and hardcore maybe? Harpies have returned - a new drummer, guitarist and bassist have been swept up into their audio cyclone and now they’re back with a killer double-A-sided single ‘Echoes’ / ‘Favour This’, two tunes cocked to the hilt ready to unleash pent up power and pure aggression.

‘Echoes’ - the very essence of an intense experience, a sensual delight bought on in part by the aural carnage generated by the glorious vocal dexterity of Nicky Honey, who, on the spin of a drum stick, can take you from sweetly-tinged mesmerising drones into a vocal tempest of towering inferno. And then just when think you have it sussed, the cascading waterfall of guitars is sucked up all at once and you’re left with the eerie rumblings of tribal tom-toms, and then – so abruptly - we once again bear witness to another crushing aural assault.

In contrast, ‘Favour This’ - a long stream of audio class, rhythmically propelled by tribal drums that halt briefly, only to dissolve into juddering angular guitars and stabbing drums; the track is reborn as it melts into the blazing furnaces of grind-core metal only to rise once again by way of a sweeping rush of chords and the harsh, abrupt vocal. A cascading waterfall of aggressive sound keeps you company throughout the track and provides the gritty foundation that other bands merely aspire to. Well-needed relief is offered by the melodic ending which chants you into blissful happiness, holding your hand while you seek peaceful entry back into the quietness of a new world and to the realisation that Harpies are most definitely back!

Subba-Cultcha
Harpies - Echoes
With the sonic malevolence of Mogwai jamming with Cult Of Luna, building into a furious sing and scream fest that is as heavily crushing as Isis at their best, one’s to watch-amazing!

Live For Metal
Harpies - Echoes
With a biog littered with quotes referring to being louder/better than Slipknot, of course provided by kids rags such as Metal Hammer, I feared the worst for my 1st Live 4 Metal assignment. But thankfully my concerns didn't need addressing as this 2 track single, apart from being aimed at a younger audience, was free of the masked ones influence.
Lead track Echoes is definitely the better of the two. Ok, the style is pretty clichéd in a quiet voice then a loud voice kind of way, but it works. Nicola Honey can sing as sweetly as her name suggests and she can also scream with more balls than a rugby team. She's more Courtney Love than Angela Gossow, although one of her main influences is P.J. Harvey, which makes sense to these ears. Favour This isn't as potent a track. It's the sort of track you've heard done many times before (unless you are a teenager I guess) Think back to when Household Name Records polluted your senses a decade ago promoting Medulla Nocte et al and you are singing from (roughly) the same hymn sheet.
This is a pre-cursor to a new album in 2007. Two tracks of this grinding sweetness is easy to digest, although I'm not sure I could cope with a full banquet.
Don Baird

Classic Rock Newswire
The Harpies new double A-side single sets the pace for their new album and forthcoming UK tour. “Echoes” has a feel not a million miles away from Evanescence, and Nicky Honey’s vocal sit nicely alongside the heavy, but tuneful, melodies provided by the band.
Nikk Gunns

Losing Today
Harpies ‘Echoes’ (Fortune Glory)
Pardon the lazy slip into the vernacular but fuck me what a glorious noise. Admittedly another release that disappeared into the CD mountain much to our embarrassment and annoyance - so apologies to all concerned but jeez this really needs to be heard to be believed. Second release from the Birmingham based quintet who seem to have undergone something of a cull in the ranks since their well received debut full length ‘Bleed, Believe’ of last year and have now swelled their line up with a new guitarist, bassist and drummer. This variant of the Harpies aren’t the three winged maidens who according to mythology turned to demons and carried off their prey to the underworld to exact all manner of terrors no siree instead the only terrorising going on here is to do with your hi-fi and ears as they pummel both into submission with their apocalyptic assault. The darkening and brutal ‘Echoes’ is a truly colossal honey, a pure and frenzied out pouring of skin peeling hooks and all hope abandoned wantonness. It rages, blisters and kicks restlessly plugging into a mutant swamp like fusion of grind core and doom metal like some primal at the end of their tether Killing Joke the centre stage commanded unmercillously by the storm conducting Nicky Honey’s vocal display that veers from beckoning to terrifying to blood letting in the blink off an eye and with that by far the most demonic fem vocal to have festered across wax grooves since Kat Bjelland’s Babes in Toyland first tore the shit out of night time transistors with ‘Dust Cake Boy’. Hand forced up the back and told to choose a favourite then for me its the flip side ‘Favour this’ mainly for the fact that though not as life threatening and punishing as its attending A side it does betray a sense of a no bars holed mentality - bludgeoned blues repeatedly used as road kill target practice and then for fun dragged through the furnaces of hell or something like that - kind of Slayer meets Nepalm Death with a sprinkle of Nine Inch Nails thrown in for good measure - can you resist - course you f***ing can’t so why bother - find record shop - buy record - put on hi-fi - crank up volume and watch your world crumble around your head. Killer stuff. www.fortuneandglory.co.uk
Mark X

One Metal
Harpies – Echoes
Harpies are a British five piece coming out of Birmingham. Their sound is a mixture of Metal, Emo and Hardcore. They have recently enlisted a new drummer, guitarist and bassist, and they are unleashing a double ‘A’ single ‘Echoes/Favour This’ through Fortune & Glory Recordings on November 6th.

Let’s face it Harpies do not fanny about, they are brutal and uncompromising. ‘Echoes’ is an audio assault that takes no prisoners. Demonstrating Nicky Honey’s vocal capabilities it can turn from disturbing melodies into pent up brutality within a single drum kick. One minute she is stroking your face and the next she is ripping it off with her bare hands. The guitar work is fluent and cascading offering up a haunting tribal feel with the backline power.

‘Favour This’ competes with the likes of Slipknot both rhythmically and in terms of power. In my view it is the better of the double ‘A’ sides with such sharp guitar work you could cut your self on the jagged edges. Harpies are not afraid to give us the true grit approach that so many bands lack. This is pure British aggression in the form of a massive audio assault.

Harpies are back with a vengeance, sending out one hell of a warning shot to others.
Mark Rigley

Room Thirteen
Angry, female-led, grindcore band Harpies start of this double A-side with 'Echoes', a song that starts off gently leading you away from your comfort zone until you are all alone. It is only when you hear the pounding drums in the background like a soundtrack to a sacrifice that you begin to wonder whether the soothing vocals and guitar playing is perhaps that wolf dressed up as grandma. Before you can do anything the guitars fire into action and the vocals scream out your destiny as many hands grab at you and lead you to your final resting place. Described as a band that "if Slipknot heard Harpies they would fuck off back to America with their tails between their legs," it's a great accolade, and one that I would not disagree with.

Second song, 'Favour This' makes no apologies from the start and kicks in with ferocious guitars and screaming vocals. There is insane drumming and deep chugging guitar riffs that sound a little like stoner rock on speed. The lead singer has such a sweet name in Nicky Honey, but boy, how far from the truth can you get!

Harpies are not for the faint hearted, nor are they for children, the aged, pregnant women or anyone who is scared easily, in fact I'm a little unsure who the hell Harpies are for, but write them off at your peril! I'm off to find my mum.
Jim Ody

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