Society always celebrates the records that top the Billboard 200 album chart. Back of The Billboards is a Music Times weekly segment that looks at the opposite end: the new record that finished closest to the back of the Billboard 200 for the previous week. We hope to give a fighting chance to the bands you haven't heard of. This week we look at We Are Harlot and the hard rock group's self-titled debut album, featuring members of Asking Alexandria, Sebastian Bach and more.
Week of 04/10/2015
WHO: We Are Harlot
WHAT: We Are Harlot
SPOT: 165
Supergroups tend to make the most appearances among the hard rock and metal scenes, and in the former case that often leads to groups that sound a heck of a lot like the sum of their pieces. Too much so in fact. We Are Harlot has a few elements that wouldn't catch our attention—former Sebastian Bach guitarist Jeff George among them—but frontman Danny Worsnop is intriguing, mainly because his first gig was as the vocalist for British metalcore act Asking Alexandria.
Ask fans of both metalcore and hair metal: The vocal styles are a tad different.
That unto itself makes Worsnop's performance on We Are Harlot, the band's debut, notable. It sounds like he's been making musical sexual advances toward women his whole life, whereas the first two records from his previous group were mostly oriented around being pissed off at women. The transition will be shocking for Asking Alexandria's fan base.
That said, he doesn't necessarily try to whitewash away his past. Some tracks, such as "Denial" and "One More Night," allow Worsnop to employ his death growls to a limited capacity. The result is something much more interesting than standard hard rock radio fare.
Those who come to the genre for the guitars won't be disappointed. The same sort of noodling you'd expect from Bach is amply provided by George.
