Harkonen

Emerging from the progressive hardcore underground that delights in reshaping the genre through pronounced metallic edges and lengthy ambient passages, Harkonen formed during 1995 in Tacoma, WA. The initial quintet revolved around core members bassist Matt Howard and drummer Ben Verellen, enduring the usual instabilities common to the hardcore circuit. Through 1997 the remaining positions belonged to guitarists Chris Vancourt and Bill Quinby alongside vocalist Mike Jones; this configuration produced the band’s self-titled debut single. Following the exits of Vancourt and Jones, Aaron Connell joined as singer, enabling the quartet to issue the single Hung to Dry. Connell’s subsequent departure reduced the group to a trio, after which Howard assumed the majority of vocal duties for a 1999 full-length issued by New York’s Wreck-Age label. With personnel finally stabilized, the trio intensified its characteristic power dirges on the EP Grizz, which appeared in 2001 via Hydra Head. Hydra Head’s roster—already home to Isis, the Dillinger Escape Plan, and similarly boundary-testing post-hardcore acts—proved an ideal match for Harkonen’s penchant for irregular meters and dense feedback explorations. The label then released the band’s second album, Shake Harder Boy, in 2002.