{"id":79269,"date":"2019-05-20T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=79269"},"modified":"2023-11-06T20:20:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T20:20:41","slug":"review-harbinger-compelled-to-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-harbinger-compelled-to-suffer\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Harbinger &#8211; Compelled To Suffer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-79270 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/CCEDFA89-D240-4413-9E9F-128DA7FAE60D-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Harbinger - Compelled To Suffer\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\">On paper, <b>Harbinger<\/b> sound like a band that really shouldn\u2019t work. The comparisons they\u2019ve received have spanned tech-metal to deathcore and slam, styles that really couldn\u2019t be further from each other in terms of musical ambition. That\u2019s not to say it can\u2019t work though, especially if the band are able to find a cohesive way to collate the influences in an effective way.<\/p>\n<p>And in general, <i>\u2019Compelled To Suffer\u2019<\/i> does just that, albeit in a way that greatly streamlines each element in a way that tones down any truly distinct features. Really though, that feels like a necessary concession that had to be made; a busy, overly bloated could\u2019ve been a reality, and yet, <b>Harbinger<\/b> bring such disparate influences together with ease. Just take opener <i>&#8216;The Awakening&#8217;<\/i>, in which the searing, intricate guitar lines remain present, but rather than being overlaid with little subtlety, they\u2019re interwoven among pummelling deathcore violence and Tom Gardner\u2019s larynx-shredding roars.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"HARBINGER - The Awakening (Official Music Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AgWCn0klCGk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, it\u2019s a thrill that does get rather run into the ground in time, particularly when there\u2019s not a great deal of modulation among these thirteen tracks. However, one thing that <i>\u2019Compelled To Suffer\u2019<\/i> constantly excels in is technical proficiency. On a purely instrumental level, it\u2019s virtually impossible to fault what <b>Harbinger<\/b> do here, such is the detail with which explores these winding passages and compacts them into manageable courses of brutality. This feels like the ideal path for this band to take, and even if it doesn\u2019t always hugely stand out, they truly make the most of their abilities through and through.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s why, to the right crowd, <i>\u2019Compelled To Suffer\u2019<\/i> could be potential album of the year material without question. It\u2019s ridiculously heavy, the technical side feels tastefully integrated, and <b>Harbinger<\/b> manage to keep a solid level of consistency throughout. It\u2019s just a shame that things can repeat and lose steam pretty easily, but for an interesting metal prospect regardless, it\u2019s definitely worth a look.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Compelled To Suffer&#8217;<\/i> by <b>Harbinger<\/b> is out now.<\/p>\n<p><b>Harbinger<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/harbingerriffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harbingerriffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/harbingerriffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/harbingerriffs.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Luke Nuttall (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nuttall_luke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@nuttall_luke<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Harbinger bring such disparate influences together with ease\u2026 \u2019Compelled To Suffer\u2019 constantly excels in is technical proficiency&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":79270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,16997,1555,15029],"class_list":["post-79269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-compelled-to-suffer","tag-harbinger","tag-luke-nuttall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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Compelled To Suffer"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/355c8ef8136051dd158a626d1b0eaf08","name":"Luke Nuttall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Luke Nuttall"},"description":"Based in Liverpool, Luke has been writing for Already Heard since 2015, as well as founding and editing his own website The Soundboard around the same time.","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/lukenuttall\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79269"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94941,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79269\/revisions\/94941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}