{"id":73300,"date":"2018-07-13T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=73300"},"modified":"2018-10-10T16:18:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:18:31","slug":"ep-review-harlots-grip-harlots-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-harlots-grip-harlots-grip\/","title":{"rendered":"HARLOT\u2019S GRIP – Harlot\u2019s Grip EP (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARLOT\u2019S GRIP
Harlot\u2019s Grip EP<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSelf-released (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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From Cleveland, Ohio, Harlot\u2019s Grip is a new band attempting to test the waters of the heavy metal ocean by releasing a four-track EP. The band is a trio consisting of vocalist \/ guitarist Wayne Richards, bassist Ed Stephens and drummer Chris Dora.<\/p>\n

All musicians present have previously been in numerous bands, so it\u2019s no surprise that this offering is a well-oiled machine. Harlot\u2019s Grip cough up rather fiery and extremely melodic New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-styled musings with the straight up rockfests such as \u2018In The Teeth Of The Tempest\u2019, although for me the vocals don\u2019t quite live up to the density of the music.<\/p>\n

With this track, we have a steady gallop, nice streaks of melody, a strong solo, and a driving drum and bass, but Wayne Richards seems to lack punch in those tones. Richards almost appears too nice, and this becomes more and more apparent as the EP trundles on.<\/p>\n

The title track comes out with an AC\/DC styled fizzing kick; that stony, persistent drum and scorching guitar hook in deep, and there\u2019s an Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) type of ease about Richards\u2019 almost bluesy vocal drool, but does it do enough? Well, in this case just about. I\u2019m reminded of ZZ Top and acts like FM, but it\u2019s the general groove which works so well, easing the listener into this infectious nod.<\/p>\n

\u2018Savage In The Shadows\u2019 is edgier; again, the guitar sound is sizzling hot as the band embarks on a thrashing tempo, but for me, Wayne is somewhat swallowed up by the powerhouse drums and smoking guitar. Traces of Saxon leak from the rhythm as a killer solo weaves. This is pretty heavy, raging stuff and the best is arguably saved for last with the colossal trudge of \u2018Night Bound\u2019; once again it\u2019s another infectious melody with a backbone of hookiness as the guitar does the fiery work complemented by the trundling bass. Wayne Richards does come into his own, but for me his somewhat earthy and laid back style does take a bit of getting used to. It\u2019s his style, and I understand that.<\/p>\n

With a bit of fine-tuning Harlot\u2019s Grip could really come up trumps with the debut full-length release, but so many times throughout I\u2019m craving that extra pinch of spice. For now though, this EP remains a very mature release, fusing heavy, almost blues-tinged and soulful rock with occasional tints of metallic fire. I do feel that at nearly eight-minutes \u2018Night Bound\u2019 is a tad overlong and would\u2019ve loved to have heard another track from the guys, but as it stands, this is still a comforting slice of drive-time rock.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARLOT\u2019S GRIPHarlot\u2019s Grip EP Self-released (2018)Rating: 7\/10 From Cleveland, Ohio, Harlot\u2019s Grip is a new band attempting to test the waters of the heavy metal ocean by releasing a four-track EP. The band is a trio consisting of vocalist \/ guitarist Wayne Richards, bassist Ed Stephens and drummer Chris Dora. All musicians present have previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-harlots-grip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73302,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73300\/revisions\/73302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}