Released at the end of 2023, “Playground” marks the return of House Of Harm, three years after full length debut; once again the Bolognese Avant publishes them! Records, now a real point of reference for sounds underground and dark.
Also in this case the group's influences start from the Eighties, above all the Cure (in particular those of “Disintegration”): a passion never denied by the Bostonians, who however are by no means mere emulators of Robert Smith and co. Fall in love with analogue instrumentation, but without ever being too nostalgic or retromaniacs, House Of Harm bring a midwestern-emo edge to their compositions (“To Last,” “Two Kinds”), not unlike their Korine labelmates. Despite their young age (but the three have always been active in the musical field) the songwriting it is mature and characterizes a picture completed by guitars janglyechoes of the more melodic Killing Joke (theopener “Before The Line”) and new romantic suggestions (“Soaked In Pastel”, “Ignore The Taste”).
A sophomore album which was already in the works in 2021: in the following two years HOH managed to write as many as seventy-five new songs, ten of which ended up in the tracklist.
Meanwhile, the prolific ensemble has composed another massive batch of songs (double, it seems!) which, in all likelihood, will mark a further evolution of their sound. They assure that everything will be released sooner or later and, if you liked “Playground” and the previous “Vicious Pastimes”, this is certainly excellent news.
05/07/2024
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM