Hollow Earth - We Are Not Humanity EP

Ok, Hollow Earth are a metallic hardcore band hailing from Detroit, Michigan. They have toured with some pretty big bands, including Shai Hulud and are currently signed to Panic Records. Their latest EP We Are Not Humanity was released in April of this year, on various formats including digitally, CD and vinyl. They have also recently played with the might Earth Crisis, so they're made of the right stuff!

Tracklist:-

1. The Great Forgetting
2. On The Bounty Of The Gods
3. Unfamiliar Cage
4. There Will Comes Soft Rains
5. On The Precipice
6. The Great Remembering

From the off, Hollow Earth sound like they mean business, with chunky riffs and screamed gang vocals. The Great Forgetting is a mid-paced, brutal slab of hardcore that acts as a precursor to the rest of the EP. On The Bounty Of The Gods is full of semi-melodic riffs and anguished vocals. There are plenty of punk influences in the drumming but the guitars take their cues from more metal angle.

Hollow Earth manages to inject plenty of atmosphere into their music while sticking to their metallic hardcore blueprint. The song ends suddenly and propels you straight into the melee of noise that is Unfamiliar Cage. There's plenty of different guitar effects at the start of this song, but it doesn’t take long for things to settle back into their hardcore stomp.

The modern touch here is hard to ignore. The production is crisp yet the band appear to be fraught and organic in their delivery. It doesn't take long for Hollow Earth to get you headbanging! The bands metal influences really shine through in the intro to There Will Come Soft Rains. Nice melodic guitar textures start thing off, along with really well placed, simple rhythmic drumming. The vocals here are on the coarser end of the hardcore spectrum, but the impact is immense and fits well with the music. There's even time for a short, introspective ending.

The immediate start of On The Precipice, reminds me subtly of Alexisonfire. There's plenty here for fans of modern metal and hardcore to like. There are spoken word passages that bring to mind some of the genre's best bands and the songs are not too long, so have a great impact and immediacy. So it's left to last song The Great Remembering too close the EP. It's probably the most melodic in terms of guitar, but it's no less brutal. The ability of Hollow Earth to sound heavy without using too many overbearing mosh parts, is a good skill and shows they are not content with just following a trend.

Hollow Earth have managed to write and EP that will appeal to a huge cross-section of metal and hardcore fans. They've shown that the touring they've done with established bands has helped them to shape their sound and are surely going grow in the future.

You can listen to We Are Not Humanity on Hollow Earth's bandcamp page below:-


You can purchase the EP digitally there as well. If you want to buy a physical version of the EP, you can do so by going to the Panic Records store at http://www.panicrecords.net/estore/, where it's available on both CD and 12" vinyl.

Hollow Earth can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HollowEarthInc, where they've got a cheeky little free download available, of two tracks from this EP. You'll have to search for it yourself though, as I don't want to spoon feed you!