International Grindcore Band HARVEST Drop Debut EP [Philippines/USA/Australia]

The pandemic unleashed a plethora of project or one-off bands. It’s hard to keep track of all of them because there just was an avalanche of these types of bands and music, and now that bands are able to tour, the world seems to want to put their money into bands who are out there hitting the road. Makes total sense. But that doesn’t mean there’s an end to these project bands.

One such band, Harvest, is one that y’all gotta stop to check out right now.

The band consists of 4 people spread out all over the world – Tweety (guitarist) in the Philippines, Johnny (guitarist) in Australia, Matt (vocalist) in USA, and Haroldo (drums) also in the USA. All these members do or have done time in the following bands: Capitalist Casualties, Deconsecration, Filth is Eternal, Sentensya, Bulkan, Choke Cocoi, xstaidx, Catheter and thus come from quite a pedigree of extreme music.

The band states, “It all started when Johnny asked Tweety if she wanted to join him in a project band. Johnny and Tweety played in a couple of shows with their bands in the mid-90s in the Philippines. Johnny is the guitarist of a death metal band Sentensya from Lucena City, Philippines. Tweety was quite hesitant to join the project because Johnny currently lives in Australia and she didn’t think this project will push through. But they went ahead anyway. Johnny asked Tweety to record her guitar tracks and he’d take care of the rest. Kriss from the band Catalepsis in the Philippines was supposed to sing for Harvest. The band’s name was his idea because Kriss, Tweety, and Haroldo are vegans but during the recording process, he was replaced by Matt”.

How did the non-Asia-based band members come into the picture?

“Haroldo came into the picture when Tweety had a chance to talk to him because she was looking for a label to help release Choke Cocoi’s LP. She mentioned Harvest and he was interested in maybe working with the band. She showed him the tracks and when he heard that the drums were MIDI-programmed tracks he wasn’t happy about that. Especially after hearing how good the guitar riffs were. The vocalist Matt came into the picture because he’s Harold’s housemate and so it was easier to get him into the studio at The Trap House to record in Seattle. Though the instruments were recorded separately around the world, all the tracks were engineered by Haroldo himself. There’s even a track that will be featured on a tribute to Dropdead compilation (it’s not currently on the EP).”

In regards to the lyrics, Matt adds, “The project came to me through Haroldo because I live with him and played with him in a couple of bands in the past, I did vocals for a grindcore band Pariah, and in death metal band Re-buried, Haroldo plays drums in Deconsecration and we did a split LP together. Between Deconsecration and touring, working full time, and being a software programming student, it is very difficult to find time to do the lyrics and vocals for Harvest but we made it happen and I think I’m happy with how it came out. The lyrics are mostly about like war and like just the fuckin’ sheer horror of war, the atrocities of it. The mindless violence, the greed, the corporate greed that drives the war machine and just treats people like we’re expendable funds in the game. A lot of lyrics are around the same theme, just mostly depression, war and suffering, the suffering of poor working-class people, the lyrics are definitely about the greed and hypocrisy of the rich, upper class and the elites coz fuck them!”

The band is planning to release their tracks on physical format soon, they’re currently looking for labels to work with so hit ’em up!

https://www.facebook.com/harvestgrind/

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