Album Review: "On Borrowed Time" by My Hollow

On Borrowed Time

Once more we travel to visit our neighbors to the north.

Another country that could very easily have been my homeland, but I'm not polite enough to be a Canadian.

That's a lot like how I don't work hard enough to be a Japanese.

But silly jokes I got from the People of Canada twitter account aside, I think that many of us here down in the States do not realize how diverse the metal scene is in The Great White North.

Today's band, My Hollow is releasing the follow up to their 2012 EP, Cold Dark Days.

It's been a bit of a long time since we've heard any new music from them, but as we dig into the album, I believe that you'll see why they can't just pop out an album every four to seven days....

My Hollow

They're described as groove-based progessive metal. Well, that's a very specific sub-genre!

I think that prog-metal is a good spot for them. Fans of Dillinger Escape Plan and Meshuggah should find a lot to enjoy on this record.

My Hollow succeeds where, in my mind, those bands fail because their sound is more than just the all out heavy assault of Meshuggah and more focused than the over the top craziness of The Dillinger Escape Plan.

My Hollow plays a very heavy style of metal. It's sort of like Pantera on meth, but I might be focusing too much on the drum sound. They have a glassy sound like on Vulgar Display of Power.

This album bobs and weaves. The succeed in crafting songs that, even though they veer off into strange places, can be followed as songs. I once read it was the test of the progressive band to take two wholly unrelated pieces of music and move seamlessly between them.

My Hollow has that in spades, and diamonds, and clubs, and hearts.

Release: 7/31/15
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: DIY
Facebook Link
Bandcamp Link (Preview and Purchase)