Harkonen/These Arms Are Snakes

Two of Washington State’s more pleasant headaches, Harkonen and These Arms Are Snakes have decided to team up for this split EP. Packaged in butt-ugly pink, the each band’s sense of humour shines through all too well. But the tunes are serious; we get two from TAAS, who play a swaggerin’ combo of post-hardcore annoyance and cool metalcore/AmRep noise rock. Not quite as caustic as Harkonen, the band travels quite similar terrain. Harkonen continue along the same path they’ve been on for a while now, following a cool full-length on Hydra Head and a similarly rockin’ EP on Initial. By now you’re probably becoming familiar with these hardworking noise rock dudes, and if not, I’m sorry to report it’s still very hard to summarise the clang they’re making with their instruments. Somewhere between Unsane, stylish post-hardcore and metalcore, the band create a fun, crushing sound. The disc ends off with a noisy collaboration song between the two bands (don’t worry, it’s actually a song, not just goofy noise). Cool split disc, and the bands complement each other oh so well; but, to answer your question, no, there are no Madonna covers here.