LIVE REVIEW: The Hara @ Camden Assembly, London
The Fallout, the new album from THE HARA, is an album so packed with razor-sharp hooks and emotional intensity that it should come with a warning: highly addictive, listen at your own risk. And there is only one way to celebrate the coming of such an album: getting sweaty in the moshpit at their launch party in Camden.
Opening the party is PARADISE FELL, a nu post-grunge group from London who combine effortless pop punk energy with grittier, grunge-tinted modern metal that instantly gets the crowd grooving. “You’re really lovely. Thanks for not throwing stuff at us already,” vocalist Matt Bankhurst says from behind his blonde Kurt Cobain curtains. Matt also doesn’t want to make a drum-a out of it, but they have to play a reduced set because they had to switch drummers only 24 hours prior to getting on stage. Drama or not, the trio have great chemistry, and it sizzles through their short but electric set that even finishes with a mosh-around-the-guitarist pit.
The headbang-or-leave catchiness of tracks like SUFFOCATE. and NADIYA. mean PARADISE FELL no doubt leave the Camden Assembly with a clutch of new fans.
Rating: 8/10
“Let’s get this fucking party started!” vocalist Josh Taylor shouts, before answering a retro red telephone displayed at the front of the stage. THE HARA always nail the understated theatrics at their shows, whether it’s taking off their clothes in teasingly dragged-out increments, or wearing animal masks, breaking stages and playing in the pit. Rockstar, the angsty single from their debut album, Survival Mode, rips open said pit, and guitarist Zack Breen jumps in. Zack, the man whose guitar shredding could charm the pants off the devil, grins wide as he risks his riffs amidst the crowd of flailing limbs. The other mobile band member, Josh, gets his crowdsurfing fix not long after and rides the eager hands as if he were created by the gods to do this. Drummer Jack Kennedy may be caged behind his drum kit, but he emits waves of palpable emotion as he blasts out beat after pit-fuelling beat. The crowd eats up THE HARA’s turbo-charged performance and throws every ounce of energy right back at them. “If you’re moshpitting for Fool & The Thief, you know it’s a good time,” Josh laughs.
London’s launch party is the night before the actual release date of The Fallout, but the reception to the previously unheard tracks is as ferocious as it is to the fan-favourites. Psycho Killer, with its darkly hypnotic rhythms and scorching tempo build-up, along with Kings, Stay, and Violence, all become instant setlist non-negotiables.
One of the (many) exciting things about THE HARA is their love of trying new things at their live shows, but balancing this unpredictability with a guaranteed set of classic antics. The boys split the crowd in half for “another new one”, Intergalactic Sabotage, and Jack is immediately shaking his head when no one seems capable of clapping in time. Learning the words doesn’t go much better, but what the crowd lacks in timing and memory, they more than make up for in chaotic enthusiasm.
The Fallout was the first chance THE HARA have had, since forming nine years ago, to properly step away from doing live shows and focus on writing music, and Jack reminisces about the pinch-me moment of getting to trial two of the songs they were writing whilst touring with one of their favourite bands: ICE NINE KILLS. Out of the trial and into the fire, they play The System, and it hits with the efficacy of an avalanche – powerfully unstoppable from the first gritty synth and strobe-light assault. Where’s Wally, who has been a main character in the pit all night, takes a brief moment to pass water around, for THE HARA aren’t even close to being done with the crowd.
By the time The Fallout’s opening track, Trophy, comes on, Josh is shirtless and wearing “his skin like a Trophy, so they give a fuck about me”. Josh Taylor sings like a man fired up from a millennium of going into battle and still having more to give. THE HARA are fighting for the place they want, nay, deserve, on the bigger stages. And they are fighting hard. Bringing it back to one of their most live show-defining tracks, Animals, Zack dons a blood-soaked Panda head and returns to the crowd to “be fed” by a swirling circle pit of fans. Also on THE HARA live bingo card is a wall of death into Josh, which he survives far too easily. The finale, Friends, gets the whole crowd down on their knees, bellowing out “da da da”s as they leap around the Camden Assembly for one final celebration of a band and an album that are fast becoming key players in the British alternative metal scene.
Expect an explosive next chapter from THE HARA, who are ready to grab the world by the ankles and pull every single creature into their orbit.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in London from Matt Pratt here:
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