Hollow Earth

Parting Remains

BY Chris AyersPublished Jan 27, 2016

6
Mixing hardcore and doom has been a peripheral desire for many bands — Integrity, Coalesce, Botch, Deadguy, Himsa, etc. — whether they admit it or not. Detroit's Hollow Earth push their metallic hardcore a few steps further into legit metal territory with this three-song EP.
 
Don't get the wrong idea: This is not an Agoraphobic Nosebleed-esque "we're a grindcore band trying our hand at doom this one time" experiment. Ex-Shai Hulud bandmates Steve Muczynski (vocals) and Mike Moynihan (guitars) made sure not to elicit shades of their former group on 2014's Silent Graves, but Parting Remains does a better job of this by dramatically slowing things down. "No Equilibrium" includes some brief fingering forays that converge on mathcore before the chords bleed into the lengthy "Beyond Celestial Limits" and its seething exigency of monolithic riffs. "Terminal Vestige" is downright contemplative, compared to the previous cuts; abounding with Isis-like passages, its amplitude grows until it erupts in a scalding shower of sweat, drumstick shards and ragged vocal cords.
 
It's not as metal-laden as Nails or Gaza, but Muczynski's relentless growling will warm the cockles of your hardcore heart, long blackened by repeated doses of Cursed and Trap Them.
(Good Fight)

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