Our Hollow Our Home – “Hartsick” [Album Review]

One of the things that rising UK bands suffer from is lack of opportunity and exposure outside their local scenes which means that it’s very rare for any of our bands to really make it big outside the UK. A case in example is Southampton metalcore crushers Our Hollow Our Home who demonstrate nothing on their debut album Hartsick that, while it isn’t already being done by the big-hitters of the European and US metalcore scenes, is certainly of the same standard.

Hartsick is a pristine, flawless collection of songs that would stand proudly along side anything by bands like Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive. Of course, it’s hard to find anything on Hartsick that you won’t have heard anywhere else but you could probably level that criticism at most modern metal bands. However, while originality might not be one of Hartsick‘s strongest points, the sheer quality with which the Southampton band crush through the likes of “Throne To The Wolves” is effortless. Utilising every weapon in the metalcore rule book from the mix of clean and guttural vocals, pit-inciting breakdowns and big melodies, there is very little, other than the aforementioned originality that you can fault Hartsick on.

The problem comes that bands like while bands like Our Hollow Our Home may have the firepower to match the big hitters song for song, the bands they’re competing against have the exposure, the big tours and the fanbase to take things to the next level. It would be a shame if OHOH didn’t get that opportunity because, on the evidence of Hartsick, this is a band who are quite rapidly outgrowing the restrictive UK scene.

Hartsick Track Listing:

01. The Sea Will Sleep
02. Loneshark
03. Throne To The Wolves
04. Worms Wood
05. Hartsick
06. Feast For The Crows
07. Karmadillo
08. The Wild Will Wait
09. Pride: Lieoness
10. Pride: Of Might & Mane
11. Web Weaver
12. The Forest Will Fail
13. Fox Blood
14. Throne To The Wolves (Acoustic)

Run Time: 42:39
Release Dates: March 03, 2017

Check out the track “Karmadillo”