It comes as something of a surprise that Southampton metalcore outfit Our Hollow, Our Home are not yet signed to a label. Although debut LP ‘Hartsick’ is self-released under the moniker Hollow Music, the band broadcasts a slick image that feels anything but DIY. Four impressive and expensive-looking videos have been released in the build-up to the album, each clocking up six figures in views.
Sonically, Our Hollow, Our Home are equally accomplished. The mix of heavy, screamed verses and tuneful choruses will be nothing new to fans of While She Sleeps or fellow south coasters Bury Tomorrow, but melodic metalcore only allows for so much variety. In its field, ‘Hartsick’ proves to be a worthy success.
Connor Hallisey possesses a growl that is deeper than most, and it gives the heaviest moments such as ‘Worms Wood’ a particularly dark edge. His vocal is consistently visceral yet warm in production – in keeping with that of a record which is raw and polished in equal parts. Handling clean vocals is guitarist Tobias Young, his melodic earworms carrying the title track and the excellent ‘Karmadillo’.
The respective guitar and piano openings to ‘Lone Shark’ and ‘Throne To The Wolves’ have a familiar and anthemic quality that is less in evidence in ‘Hartsick’’s final third. Which is home to fillers ‘Web Weaver’ and ‘Fox Blood’. The dead-end choruses of those tracks, combined with the unnecessary interludes of metal solos and pointless atmospherics, represent the room for improvement that is to be expected in a first effort.
Nonetheless, ‘Hartsick’ possesses all kinds of potential. Its songs are a demonstration of big, brutish metalcore that is commendable for an unsigned act. Something which surely won’t be the case for much longer.
4/5
‘Hartsick’ by Our Hollow, Our Home is released on 3rd March on Hollow Music.
Our Hollow, Our Home links: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
Words by Peter Stewart (@PeteStew_)
