Deception Among Birds

Excuse me … is this really Harpoon? I had to skip their 'Double Gnarly / Triple Suicide' album because their label never got my (registered!) letter with the money in it. Yes, in the third millennium we have not reached the point in which such trivia will reach the recipient no matter what. Still feels like the freaking Stone Age. No, I hate electronic payment … and yes, feel free to call me paranoid.

Anyway, while the first impression reminds on the music the band started with, the more of it passes the more it leaves a certain kind of confusion. Some facets have remained – like the vocals and the hardcore/punk influences in the arrangements – but the concept appears in a much broader as well as less violent kind of way. Clean vocal parts, slow interludes and rather progressive riff structures work as a counterpoint to the aggressiveness which still has a considerable impact. To present one major difference between the two albums, just take at the track lengths:

Double Gnarly / Triple Suicide
(12 Tracks; length: 23:17; longest: 5:35; average: 1:56)

Deception Among Birds
(8 Tracks; length: 37:01; longest: 7:21; average: 4:37)

Well, the band seems to have decided to explore their music on a larger degree. From the current perspective, the days in which the compositions offered aggressiveness on the spot seems to be over. Thrash metal / grind, such is the description used at their profile at the Metal Archives, but the music has moved a bit away from this. There are elements of post-rock, there is doom, there are progressive parts, there are symphonic keyboard segments but there is nothing like someone would expect it. Metaphorically speaking, it seems the band threw a 'harpoon' into the wide ocean of the metal universe several times and landed each time a different and even stranger combination of elements on shore. Would the band offer more on the skill level and would their song-writing be more progressive, then their art might even reach for the weirdness Civil Defiance has gained some reputation for.

By listening to the music one question imposes itself upon the listener: what does the band stand for and what kind of music do they actually play? Where is the red line in this? Deception Among Birds is an ambitious release, this is most certainly out of the question, but a track like 'Troglodyte's Delight', all the quality and nice arrangements that it contains put aside, sounds quite displaced and its length is by no means the only reason. Being rather doomy with a variety of other influences, it generally lacks the aggressiveness Harpoon tends to offer on a certain level. Despite the hardcore influences which can be discovered in the opening of it, the more it progresses the more it becomes a boring and dull piece of art. No drive, no energy … just some AOR-worship. Interestingly, the succeeding composition 'The Cut of His Jib' continues in a rather 'normal' fashion; except for the vocals though and those clean ones are an odd counterpoint to the dominating hardcore screams.

Harpoon should decide what they want to play. Music with balls or with Valium, because they cannot have it both ways. Shall it be music like the title track (first part of it only) – the double bass drums are a welcome element and create together with the guitars a nice atmosphere – or a strange mess like 'Troglodyte's Delight'? The attempt to have it both ways seems to be a step in the wrong direction. This latest output from the Americans is not bad, but it is definitely not far away from a 'low' level. I would not spend money on it …

Note:
You should get their shirt with the seal on it though, because it looks great and I will continue to wear it in the summer days.

Based on a review originally written for ‘A dead spot of light (Number 16)’:
http://www.archive.org/details/ADeadSpotOfLight...Number16