What do members of Napalm Death, DragonForce, and Hate Eternal have in common? Normally, we’d have no fucking clue, but today the members premiere a new song from the Mitch Harris-led Menace. Now, most Decibel readers know Mitch Harris. He of Napalm Death. One of the fastest grind guitarists around. But he’s not shredding bar chords into oblivion with Menace. He’s going the other way. The slow way. The song way, where melody is emphasized and harmony underscored. The core of it all: Mitch sings. And well, too.
The group’s debut album, Impact Velocity, imparts a distinct vibe, a place where Junius meets the electronic—nay, futuristic—bleeps, bops, and hooks of an animated TV series credits song. The cool thing, however, is that Menace sounds completely organic, natural in its construct and delivery. Here’s what Mitch had to say about the project: “To me, Menace is the old meeting the new; heavy and melodic, descriptive and adventurous, epic and futuristic, carnal and primitive, and so on. Menace brings unrealized/undiscovered dreams closer to fruition. It is about overcoming loss and hardship, and a combination of many interests, including spiritual philosophy, psychology, science, physics, theatrics, the supernatural, the paranormal, film, poetry, photography, art, sculpture and video; all of the things I’ve focused all my energy on over the last twenty years. It’s an organic meets technological approach to exploration and self discovery through a direction I term audio-installationism (A.I.).”
OK, time to embrace “To the Marrow”, which features the excellent work of Ukrainian animator Kseniya Simonova.
** Menace’s Impact Velocity is out March 18th on Season of Mist. Pre-orders are available HERE. Or, you can spend your days marveling at Kseniya Simonova’s animation pieces. Kind of a tough choice, really.
