Our Hollow, Our Home – Burn In The Flood (Hollow Music)
Our Hollow, Our Home announced themselves with their blistering 2018 second album In Moment // In Memory but now the pressure is really one.
After an 18 months that’s sucked the life out of a whole generation, finding the drive and determination to record an album as emotionally taxing as Burn In The Flood is seriously impressive. The added pressure that the metalcore crew were under following heavy praise from Metal Hammer, Kerrang, Rock Sound and Rushonrock didn’t seem to impact the creative flow.
It’s been a good few months for heavy records, and Our Hollow, Our Home have come up against fine competition in the likes of Landmvrks. While the French crew added some grindcore grunt to Lost In A Wave, Our Hollow, Our Home surprised by keeping things simple – one Crazy Town inspired rap intro on Blood aside.
And that makes sense. When you’ve made a genuinely 10/10 album, why would you veer away from the that which brought such success?
Musically, Burn In The Flood is clearly related to In Moment // In Memory but lyrically it cuts its own course – for the most past. OHOH’s second record was a cathartic experience for Tobias Young, who used it to help navigate the death of his Father and while the third album makes some reference to it, notably on Remember Me – one of the stand outs on the album.
Nerv is a misspelled masterpiece full of haunting industrial drops and fists-in-the-air chorus lines while Overcast marks the glorious return of the metalcore blergh (why did it ever go out of fashion) but combines in with some delicate, Sorry You’re Not A Winner-ish electric keys in the background.
Children of Manus is a huge song. Burn In The Flood is a huge song and there’s only so many times you can say ‘this album slaps’ before it begins to sound boring, but this album slaps.
Metalcore feels like a difficult genre to nail. There’s competition but there’s not much room to soften up and certainly no room for filler. There’s pressure to be as heavy as possible without turning into a parody act, and it’s a difficult tightrope to navigate.
Once again, Our Hollow, Our Home have produced something relentless but doesn’t overwhelm; heavy but offers periods of light; deeply rooted in emotion without being overwhelming.