Artist: Harms Way 
   Title: Oxytocin
   Label: Black Lodge

With the demise of his old band Terra Firma in 2003, guitarist Freddie Lindgren has decided to give the rock n roll circus another go.  This time teaming up with friend Mr Dim to handle bass and vocals on his new band, the two came up with Root of all Evil as the bands moniker and together with founder members Mike on drums and Erik Wallin on guitars so the band was born.  Erik later came up with the idea of changing the band name from Root of all Evil to Harms Way, this was also the title of the last release Freddie did with his old band Terra Firma, so out of the old cometh the new.

The band had to replace Mike after the bands first demo back in 2004 due to him not being able to fully commit to the band and replaced him with Stipen, who was a long time friend of Erik.

This new incarnation of Freddie’s entered the studio early this year and the resulting album Oxytocin was born.

The album is a hot bed of thunderous bass lines and monstrous guitar licks, very reminiscent of early Sabbath mixed with Queens of the Stone Age.

The album opens up with a real assault on the senses the riff laden ‘As Time Goes By’, a track that starts off with a haunting tuned down guitar intro but soon builds with heavy bass lines and thunderous drums, that are the real meat and potatoes of this album.  This accompanied by the guitars of Lindgren and Wallin make this a great opener.

The album continues in similar vein with ‘High Becomes Low’ only with the tempo brought down just a touch.  This is another track that relies heavily on the rhythm section and the band almost verge on stoner rock with this one, although the track finishes off on a high, as it builds into a crescendo with both guitarist spewing out some great stuff at the end.  As the track melts into the next with the greatest of ease, the pace of the ending of ‘High Becomes Low’ merges with the beginning of ‘Million Ways’ beautifully and this is were the Queens of the Stone Age comparison comes in with the up tempo beat and flawless guitars.

The pace is once dropped down to stoner level with ‘Move Your Face’, while still retaining that unique Harms Way sound.  Next up is the instrumental ‘Tsunami’ and it's just that a huge wave of sound that just washes over you and there’s nothing you can do about it, with each band member really giving it their all on this track.

One particular track where the guitars of Erik and Freddie really shine is ‘9 Out Of 10’.  This is the only track where the rhythm section takes a back seat and the two guitarists show just what they can do when they put their minds to it.  This mixed with the spell binding vocals from Dim make this one of my favourite tracks from the album.

The album takes a real change tempo wise with ‘Prime Time’, a real rock monster that will have you nodding along to the beat, from the first few chords all the way to the end another great track.

The album comes to a close as it started with ‘Hocus Pocus’, a heavy bass ridden track that just has class written all over it.  What with its insatiable guitars and thunderous drums, a perfect track to round off a quite special debut from the band, who I predict will be one to watch out for over the coming months. 

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