Album Review: Hollows – Home Is Not Where The Heart Is

Hollows released their latest full length, Home Isn’t Where The Heart Is, on June 9th, the band, that were formerly known as Hollow Heart, are already well established in metalcore circles, so it’ll come as no surprise that there are the usual brutal elements that you’ve come to expect from any self respecting purveyor of metalcore, but they promise that this new album will throw a few fresh ingredients into the mix to bring something new to the metalcore table.

Home Isn’t Where The Heart Is is populated by a bombardment of aggressive barked vocals that are combined with brutal guitars, intense riffs and powerhouse drums that blend into melodic sections with a clean vocal delivery. From the opening track, Coward King, to the closing track, (null), Hollows bring an intense and noisy in your face approach across all eleven tracks. Whilst this might sound like a recipe for you average metalcore album, there are atmospheric influences, in particular on the track Tonguespeak, that raises Home Is Not Where The Heart Is above many of their peers.

Hollows have delivered an album that’s as brutal as anything I’ve encountered, although I personally found that I got a feeling of deja vu when listening to Home Isn’t Where The Heart Is, this is an album that does tend to become something of a blur of crunching guitar riffs and intense drumming. But having said that, this is one of the more original releases from the metalcore stable, the production on the album is flawless and the aggression is almost relentless, and if metalcore is your thing then Hollows really should be on your radar as this is one of the better metalcore releases I’ve encountered this year.

You can purchase Home Is Not Where The Heart Is via Hollows website here