EP Review: From Harm – A Plot to Salvage

Raging their way from Fort Worth straight to your heart, From Harm break sound and genre barriers on A Plot to Salvage.

Over six tracks, the quartet find room in the space between classic hardcore and darker rock themes. No Safe Haven and Desolate allow the vocals free rein, shredding your soul as they get your skin tingling and the driving tempo gets your feet heading for the mosh pit – or maybe even a protest march.

For all the fierceness of the EP, it has reflective passages – Half-Hanged and Forced to Settle trend to the melodic end of hardcore but are as heavy tonally as the lyrics are expressive and arresting. The band’s founder, Jon Chapman, has spoken about how From Harm was formed to highlight the bigotry, religious oppression and discrimination felt by millions.

That helps explain why the band has a knack for song titles that are evocative and function as a call to arms – Crownbroken and Better to Feast Than to Fast could easily come from an Anthrax or Black Flag album. The fury in the names matched by the sonic mayhem unleashed in both songs and, in fact, the EP in its totality.

There is more than a hint of doom to A Plot to Salvage, in terms of the music as well as the lyrics – the band does not varnish their truth nor the truth of the world around them. What gives the EP such vitality is that no matter how raw and expressive the performances, how explosive the percussion or passionate the vocals, melody is at the centre of each song. For that reason, the EP will resonate with fans of Gallows and Cancer Bats, as well as Trap Them, Incendiary, and The Greenery.

A Plot to Salvage and previous releases by From Harm can be downloaded on Bandcamp and streamed on Spotify. Catch up with the band over on Facebook or Instagram to get to know the band and their music better.

Header photo by Matt Benton