Vocalist James Pligge explains the balance of compiling an album that is both their darkest thematically and their brightest artistically.
Words by Kevin Diers
After five years of anticipation, Chicago hardcore heavyweights Harms Way will drop Common Suffering on Friday September 29th, their fifth full length album as a band and their second on Metal Blade Records.
Clocking in at 35 minutes, these 10 songs find the band at a creative peak, weaving together a mix of crushing death metal and hardcore influences with tinges of industrial and even post-metal.
This album marks the band’s first time working hands-on with a producer to construct the songs, going through each riff, drum sequence and vocal cadence to craft what would ultimately become the album. The producer they tapped was Will Yip, whose body of work speaks for itself. He has produced, mixed and engineered on albums ranging from Title Fight to Code Orange.
“He suggested the order of things,” vocalist James Pligge says. “And then would suggest things such as, ‘Hey, how about we like, add a transition here’, and then we would spend time writing it.”
Altogether, Harms Way devoted two weeks to pre-production, making sure they had everything tied together perfectly before moving forward.
“When you’re very meticulous about every little detail and are able to work with somebody else that hears things differently…” Pligge explains. “I thought that that was a really good process to get the best product.”
The end result is, as Pligge describes, the most diverse sounding Harms Way album to date. There are plenty of the punishingly heavy parts the band is known for, but on songs like “Undertow”, which features guest vocalist King Woman, there’s an added grandiose layer of melody and creepiness.
“I’d like to say that it’s a step in a different direction,” Pligge says. “But it also at its core, is still Harms Way. It still has a lot of heavy aspects.”
Coming out of one of the most challenging times in human history, the album title says it all.
“I will say that it’s a lot darker than a lot of other a lot of our other material as far as lyrically, the way the art is the, the song titles…and obviously the record is called Common Suffering,” Pligge says. “As a whole it’s just a very, very dark record. Our lives over the past three years, especially, personally, and obviously, from a societal perspective reflected how we were feeling during that time. The music and the lyrics are a reflection of what happened.”
Pligge is quick to give props to the newest additions to the Harms Way lineup, guitarist Nick Gauthier and bassists Casey Soyk, as he feels they have added a whole new dimension and compliment the strong foundation built by guitarist Bo Lueders and drummer Christopher Mills.
“They really helped reinvent our band,” Pligge says. “They’re responsible for a lot of writing and the majority of the writing on this record. Just getting two guys who have completely different mindsets about music and have different ideas and hear things differently…Prior to that, Chris (Mills) and I had written most of the Harms Way stuff. With over 10 years of us writing…when you have someone else come in with different ideas, that hear things differently… that really helps create new, interesting music and not the same old thing.”
A lot has changed since Harms Way released their last album in 2018. Fueled by the rise of bands like Turnstile, Sunami and Scowl, the shows and fests are bigger than ever and it truly feels like this scene is having a major moment. Recently, Pligge attended Tied Down Fest in Detroit and got a glimpse of just how much energy is out there.
“The amount of people that were at that festival, I was like, ‘Holy shit,’” Pligge says. ‘Yeah, this is.. this is huge.”
Pligge has been going to hardcore and metal shows since the late 90’s. After his dad him introduced to heavy rock music at an early age, he found his way into youth crew hardcore, then eventually underground metal.
“You can kind of see that a lot of the shows are just selling out,” Pligge says. “People are just into heavy music right now. It’s very apparent that it’s popular and people are excited about it.”
Back at the peak of the pandemic when we were all holed up inside watching our phones and living vicariously through the internet, a Hate5Six video of Pligge doing a running-man-like mosh onstage during a Harm’s Way set was shared and quickly became a viral meme. Though he’s able to laugh it off now, Pligge isn’t a big fan.
“I really don’t like that meme,” Pligge says. “Obviously people know us from that. When that took off, I think we sold 1000 shirts. And it wasn’t like we dropped new merch or anything. That led people to that path. But the reason I don’t like it is because I don’t like that people think Harms Way is something that’s not serious.”
With the band only playing a small handful of shows since 2019, Harms Way is gearing up for one of their biggest headlining tours to date. This time they are mixing up the bill with Idaho death-metal influenced hardcore band Ingrown, fast-rising heavy alternative shoegaze outfit Fleshwater and Baltimore hardcore punks Jivebomb.
Though all four of the bands on this tour might not sound much alike sonically, Pligge points out there is one thing they all have in common.
“In my opinion it brings out a lot people that have the same DIY values,” Pligge says. “We could all technically be considered different genres of music, which is cool.”
Common Suffering is due out September 29th via Metal Blade Records.
Pre-orders are available HERE.
Harms Way will also kick off their headlining Common Suffering Record Release tour with Fleshwater, Ingrown, and Jivebomb this fall – their first in four years. The tour begins October 18th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and wraps on November 16th in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tickets for the tour are currently on sale – HERE
Harm’s Way, Fleshwater, Ingrown, Jivebomb tour dates:
Oct 18: Milwaukee, WI – X-Ray Arcade
Oct 19: St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill
Oct 20: Louisville, KY – Portal
Oct 21: Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups
Oct 22: Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
Oct 24: Pittsburgh, PA – Preserving Underground
Oct 25: Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Oct 27: Brooklyn, NY – Monarch
Oct 28: Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
Oct 29: Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
Oct 30: Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
Oct 31: Richmond, VA – Canal Club
Nov 01: Atlanta, GA – Masquerade – Hell
Nov 03: Dallas, TX – Studio at The Factory
Nov 04: Austin, TX – Mohawk
Nov 05: Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Studio
Nov 07: Phoenix, AZ – The Nile
Nov 08: Las Vegas, NV – Eagle Aerie Hall
Nov 09: Los Angeles, CA – 1720
Nov 10: San Diego, CA – Brick by Brick
Nov 11: Berkeley, CA – 924 Gilman Street
Nov 12: Sacramento, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
Nov 14: Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
Nov 15: Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
Nov 16: Kansas City, MO – RecordBar
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