Harpies – Bleed, Believe Posted by AlMachine on Friday, August 6, 2004 Ever looked at the female fronted bands in metal like Kittie and My Ruin/Tura Satana and thought well… this proves women can do metal and sound as good as the guys, but musically leaves a lot to be desired. Even with Kittie, did you ever think like me when I saw them in Meringue! that they were a record label hand-picked band ‘hey lets get some foxy young nu-metal girls together and watch it sell shit loads!’… but then be surprised by the ferocity of their music and having to admit to be impressed? Well at the least I was surprised, but still … musically it really didn’t have much to it for it to keep my interest. Up steps Harpies, and blows everything else away. Dark sultry music, that any second could suddenly rip your head off with its ferocity – but what puts it well above bands like Kittie and My Ruin is the quality of the tracks. The riffs aren’t groundbreaking, but they’re heavy and do the job, and up there with most of the current hardcore metal bands breaking out of the US. The twin vocal attack of Nicola Honey and Laura Westwood are spot on throughout giving Angela Gossow a run for her money, and I imagine must be quite a sight live to behold. There’s hardly a weak track on the album and the intensity and dark brooding atmosphere rarely dips, and there’s a whopping 13 tracks! This is a truly excellent debut, no debate about it. There are very few bands I can find to give time in this genre and Harpies are ones that I will from now, it’s quite a find. I thoroughly recommend you track this down, at least before Kerrap! latches on. So for that, I’ll give it full marks. Fuck it, UK music scene needs bands like this making an effort and releasing well produced and written debuts like this. Good one girls. Al White