If the album's title
Shake Harder Boy being a line from
The Simpsons isn't proof of
Harkonen's sense of humor, surely song titles such as "All This Time I Thought Your Name Was Cool Dude" and "We've Come For Your Daughters" are. However, this isn't silly music. Rather,
Harkonen follows in similar footsteps as fellow Washingtonians,
Botch. The guitar tone and its attention to discordant, mathy twists and turns as well as the bloated, yelled vocals are reminiscent of the hardcore powerhouses, who were also labelmates with
Harkonen. While the songs on
Shake Harder Boy are powerful and gutsy, they don't come out and blow the listener away like
Botch's did. There is a good deal of dark atmosphere and feedback utilized from time to time, and the band can certainly explode when necessary, but they seem to be holding back to a large degree. Part of this might be a production problem, which is surprising seeing as to how the normally ingenious Matt Bayles handled production duties. Whatever the case may be, while the 11 songs here are tight and sound harsh, when compared to other bands in the genre, they seem unsatisfying and redundant, as much of this has been done before. ~ Kurt Morris