OV HOLLOWNESS — The World Ends (review)

OV HOLLOWNESS — The World Ends album cover Album · 2013 · Atmospheric Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kev Rowland
Somewhat amazingly, Ov Hollowness is the result of just one guy, Canadian Mark R. who started down this road in 2009. He released his first demo, and then an album, both in 2010 and released the follow-up in 2011. That’s quite a lot of work for one person, especially as there is a lot of music here. Some atmospheric black metal bands rely on a lot of keyboards, but Mark has worked on creating a full band sound. I’m not 100% convinced that the drums are ‘real’, but the cymbals certainly are while vocally he combines both ‘clean’ and ‘raw’ to great effect. This is a pounding album which is much more Emperor than Burzum, but contains a lot of the atmosphere of the latter.

It is a very cold, indeed bleak, album that has much more going for it than most of the genre. I had played the album a few times before I got to the press release and I was blown away to discover that the band that I thought existed actually doesn’t as there is no way that this comes across as a solo effort. In fact, to my ears it is one of the finest black metal albums I have come across, whatever the sub genre (or should that be sub sub genre?), and one that I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys this style of music. There is a real edge and rawness that cry out desolation and torture and while it is a long way from Sweden it has obviously been heavily influenced by that country. More than just atmospheric, Ov Hollowness is like a controlled chaos of melancholic sounds while keeping intact some of the aggression of black metal. www.auralmusic.com
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Nothing More Sludge Metal
CALLOUS
Buy this album from MMA partners
From The Bottom Of The Sewers Sludge Metal
DEAF OWL
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Gets Worse Sludge Metal
KULK
Buy this album from MMA partners
Černé Srdce Atmospheric Sludge Metal
ARCHETYP
Buy this album from MMA partners
Anomalia Metalcore
AGREMORTA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 15 hours ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 15 hours ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 15 hours ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 18 hours ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed