Hollowed Sky released their eponymous debut back in 2018 and now they’re back with five more songs for devotees of their Alt-Rock sound but this time there’s more than the Alt-Rock musings of ‘Live’ and ‘Incubus’… this time it’s heavier and far more assured.
‘Strings’ which opens the EP of the same name is a hard rocker that you might not necessarily associate with the band previously and its all the cooler for it, a nice crunchy riff drives it all the way to the solo and gives you the perfect wake-up call. ‘This Hell’ that follows is a nice combination of cool vocals and similarly aggressive guitars that keeps that nice momentum; whilst ‘Bleeding Out’ allows the rhythm section to shine with a nice accent of something punkier and more metallic, almost reaching the world of bands like Tool.
That sadly just leaves us with two more, but to me they’re the real highlights of this release – firstly the powerful ‘Turning Ill’ will floor you and is probably the closest here to the sound of their debut. ‘Baltimore’ though is the track that signals Hollowed Sky’s real arrival – six minutes of passion and intensity which some bands spend a career trying to capture. That song sis worth the price of admission alone. I can’t wait to hear what comes next because for this listener at least there’s been a huge stride forwards since the debut.