Source: Album Artwork
One of the UK’s biggest exports in recent years has no doubt been metalcore. While its origins have been associated with the US, its been British bands that have really flourished within the scene as bands such as Bury Tomorrow, Asking Alexandria and While She Sleeps have found success. Southampton in particular has been home to an overwhelming amount of talent, including up-and-coming five-piece Our Hollow, Our Home who will release their debut album on March 3th.
Hartsick kicks off with a short introductory piece fit with a haunting buildup and a face-melting breakdown, entitled ‘The Sea Will Sleep‘. It leads in seamlessly to ‘Lone Shark‘, which is a fast-paced, catchy crowd pleaser. Our Hollow, Our Home originally established themselves by playing at local festivals such as the now defunct Takedown. They’ve done a brilliant job of building up a fanbase that way and have put out a number of EPs, but Hartsick is their very brilliant attempt at proving they know exactly what to do when faced with the challenge of putting out an album.
‘Throne To The Wolves‘ could be considered to take an element or two from pop punk, which has become interchangeable with metalcore in recent years in forms such as A Day To Remember and Pierce The Veil. Our Hollow, Our Home are clearly not trying to make it their full-time style, but it’s a great track to show off how versatile they can be.
The titular track’s intro is massive; monster riffs by guitarists Josh White and Tobias Young, combined with the savage drum beats from Nick Taliadoros make this track a real stand-out and gives a real sense of the band’s uniqueness and personality. Young provides clean vocals which compliment unclean vocalist Connor Hallisey‘s output perfectly, which is finished off by killer basslines from Bobby Brooks which sees every song on this record put together with so much care and determination.
With such a brilliant release of material to kick off the year, 2017 could no doubt be the year for Our Hollow, Our Home. Their talent alone would be the envy of every other band in the scene, but its their impressive resolve that really steals the show and makes it apparent that is a band not to be messed with. They’ve appearances scheduled this year at small, genre-specific festivals such as Teddy Rocks and Fort Fest, but they could be easily playing the likes of Download and Reading & Leeds in no time at all.
