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Presenting up to date news, reviews & interviews for riff addicts around the world.
This is 'Liberation through Amplification.'
This Florida outfit come on like a freight train- an unstoppable
band channelling the spirit of early High on Fire
“Civilizations” CD//DD//LP
track listing:
1. Litmus 2. Dirt Womb 3. Mountains of Stone 4. Black Moon 5. Hunter and the Hunted 6. Intro 7. Chimera 8. Akasha 9. Exodus
The Review
This
Florida outfit come on like a freight train- an unstoppable band channelling
the spirit of early High on Fire but moving
a little slower. From the opening pounding of “Litmus”, you expect sludge and that's what you get.
That
said, there is much more to this record- acoustic guitars and clean vocals on “Black Moon” are just the start. There
is a fair amount of stoner-ish atmosphere (“Hunter and the Hunted”, “Intro”)
and some really cracking riffs. The production and mix are great; weighty and
pleasing to listen to and the tempos are not just one slow pace. There are some
real head-nodders in here too; “Chimera”
is one of them and it utilises a mid-paced but oddly groovy approach.
If
you prefer a bit of gloom, then “Akasha”
covers it well with some very doomy sounds that will appeal to even the most
ardent Sabbath purist. The closing
close-to-eight-minutes of “Exodus”
is an expansive finish to a blinding record.
Hollow Leg inhabit the same kind of space as High on Fire (first album) but also cover the territory of Sleep, The Sword (early) and
other bands who are on the doom/stoner/sludge spectrum whilst not quite fitting
into one bracket. Recommended and really good.
Called an
"enormously toned groove engine," Hollow Leg's train just keeps on a'
rollin.' Now on the eve of their fourth full-length release since
2010, as well as a tour run with Witchkiss this October,
the band is poised to raise their
profile further still with the release of “Civilizations”, featuring
nine tracks of sludge vitriol akin to Crowbar, Weedeater, and Eyehategod, the
album will be available late 2018/ early 2019 via Argonauta Records.
Whilst the
new album may be way off yet, today we can exclusively debut a brand new track
entitled “Mountains of Stone” and for those of you who are familiar with
the band, the heaviness and brutality of previous albums
continues, built upon a foundation of dirty
riffs, heavy bass and the assault & battery
of the drums, this track demonstrates that there will be no stopping
Jacksonville's finest over the next 12 months.
Tune in and Let your speakers die.
Critically
acclaimed doom/sludge metal band HOLLOW LEG returned with their new two track
EP “Murder”, released via Argonauta
Records on March 3 2017. The
EP, which consists of the band's strongest material to date featured new
drummer John Stewart (Bloodlet/Caribou King) and would be reissued
alongside their ArgonautaRecords
debut album, to form the Crown “Murder
Edition” on June 30th . An
enormously toned groove engine hailing from the highways between Deland and Jacksonville, Florida.
HOLLOW LEG’S
affinity for the roots of American Blues music and English metal has created a
sound that has been compared to a mix of doom, sludge and traditional heavy
metal, with shades of Sabbath, Crowbar, Eyehatgod, Weedeater and
even Priest
to be found in their material.
Establishing
themselves as firm favourites here at THE SLUDGELORD, andfollowing their announcement to
play at this year’sPsycho Las Vegas in August, the band agreed
to not only take over our instagram page, but our man Greekbastard hooked up
with the band in Las Vegas to get the band’s impressions of the festival, how
their announcement came about and what the future holds for this most awesome
of bands. Check out the interview in
full below.
So how did you guys end up on the festival?
Brent: I believe I had some correspondents with
the promoter previously from some of the California
events that he had done. And then I kind of forgot about it. And just out of
the blue I got an email asking if we wanted to play. It was really that simple.
It was like one back and forth email pretty much. It was cool. We were really
surprised and excited to do the show.
Cool.
In addition to playing the festival, what are some of the bands you're looking
forward to seeing?
Brent: Definitely Melvins, Sleep, Royal Thunder. Seeing DarkCastle's
going to be amazing because we got our start with those guys. We played our
first shows with them and we're both on, so you know, old friends. And they
haven't played in a while so we're looking forward to seeing them. Neurosis.
Basically
every band. (laughs)
Brent: Scott toured with Neurosis back in the day, but I
haven't seen Neurosis
in 20 years so I'm excited. Sumac, yep. Who else? King Diamond, of course. Yeah, it's a really sick show. Unfortunately
we missed Conan
last night. I really wanted to see them. And we're going to miss Slomatics
and I wanted to see Corrosion of Conformity too.
So
what's Hollow Leg up to right now?
Brent: This. (laughs). We just finished one and a
half touring cycles. We did a record and an EP. We've done some touring for
both of those releases. Most recently in June we did the East Coast for the
Maryland Doom Fest. And then we're doing this, and we have some Florida shows we're
going to do this year.
Scott: Just for the friends coming down.
Brent: Yeah, we have some friends coming down and
there's going to be another festival in Jacksonville
we're doing. And that's the end. We're going to be working on a new record
after this show.
Scott: We're already a few songs into it.
Brent: Yeah.
Scott: At least a few.
Brent: Probably like eight in the works, so it's
happening.
Cool.
So you guys released your Murder EP
and then re-released Crown with the Murder EP on Argonauta Records?
Brent: Mm-hmm.
So
how has Argonauta treated you guys so far?
Brent: Great. He's never said no to us so that's
like the biggest thing, you know?
Scott: (laughs)
Brent: If we have someone that wants to put out
our shit and is just agreeable for pretty much ... If he's up for doing it,
then it's awesome. He's been really easy to work with.
Scott: Supportive.
Brent: Supportive. Gets us press and ear up, which
is great. It's been good. Like I said, it's more friendly than anything. It
doesn't feel so much like business all the time, so that's an important thing
for us. It's got to be ... Not casual, we do take this very seriously, but it's
got to be kind of casual in a sense just because we all have family life too
and we can't really put as much time and energy as a lot of other bands, so for
him to understand that and go with us and support us knowing we can only tour
so much is really cool. But he knows we want to do more too, so I think that's
a big thing.
So
when you guys aren't living the dream in Hollow Leg, what do you guys do to
earn keep?
Brent: You want to explain Scott?
Scott: I work for a scenery company. We make sets
for corporate shows or theaters or theme parks, stuff like that. Theme parks
are a big deal in Atlanta,
so that's where I work. It's easy to come and go from jack of all trades kind
of thing. Little bit of carpentry, little bit of upholstery, little bit of
painting and finishing. That's how I make my dollars.
(laughs)
Brent: And I'm a chef for a country club. Our bass
player Tom is a paralegal. And our drummer John works for the city of Orlando.
Brent: Yeah.
Alright.
I noticed you guys have done some short regional tours in the past, but are
there any plans in the works of ever touring states - a full blown tour - or Europe?
Brent: Yeah. We're waiting on the right
opportunity, I guess, on those things. It's a lot of time and dedication to do
those type of tours and we want to make sure it's a good one. Doing a DIY full
US or Europe at this point of our lives slash
careers is not really a thing we want to do. We can do ...
Scott: We can do regional stuff. Ten day stuff in
a row. If we could run all the way out to West Coast in ten days, great. If we
could find a way to fly out here and play with our friends using their gear for
ten days and ride in their van, great. That's the kind of stuff we can do right
now. It would have to be an opportunity, chasing the bus around. We've eaten
scraps and ... Being able to play in front of a bunch of people and sell some
of our merch and actually meet some new people, that would be the kind of
opportunity that would give us a ...
Brent: If there's a bigger band that wants to take
us to Europe or take us on a full US-
Scott: We will chase the bus around.
Brent: We will definitely jump at that
opportunity.
Scott: Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Brent: It just hasn't been presented to us yet, or
hasn't-
Scott: Materialized. It hasn't materialized.
Brent: The right one hasn't been presented to us.
So
do you think this sludge metal scene has kind of slowed up because of
unoriginality, or it being too redundant? Or do you think it's evolving into
something better right now?
Brent: I definitely see it evolving into something
better. I don't see it ... I mean, sludge ... When I think of sludge I think
of...
I
mean like the stoner metal that's going on.
Brent: Okay. All the stoner...
Yeah.
I'm kind of encompassing all that stuff.
Brent: Okay. Yeah. I think it's coming into
something else. If you're going to just stick to a pure sludge or a pure stoner
or a pure doom-
Scott: It's going to get stale.
Brent: It's going to deteriorate. It's going to
become like ... You know, you have the A bands and then you're going to have
the B bands and then you're going to have the C bands and the D bands and so
on. But if all those sounds kind of morph into something different, and then
you're also taking from other outside stuff, like an old school British metal,
or more hard rock sound, or even I heard more country stoner, country doom-y
bands, it's like ... That's what's going to make it into something a little
different. I think bands now are starting to cross-pollinate a little bit more.
I know certainly that's not what we try to do, but we definitely fit in that
because we have so many different things. But at the end of the day it's all
fucking Sabbath
worshipers. It really is. It's all based on those riffs. And that's what you
always go back to. It's like, what would Iommi do?
Scott: Yeah.
Brent: You know what I mean? It always goes back
to that. If it doesn't sound like something Sabbath would do, fucking scrap
it.
Scott: (laughs)
(laughs)
Brent: It's really not worth it.
With
Hollow Leg being based out of Florida, what do
you like about Florida?
What don't you like about Florida?
Brent: We're really divided about this. Good
question though. As a Florida native, you want to...
Scott: I like and hate that it's isolated from the
rest of the world. A lot of tours won't even come down. They'll get to Atlanta
and just shoot over to New Orleans, and I totally understand that, being from
there as well. But I like that it's isolated in that it has its own sense of
community and we can come up with some really cool shit that's not really
necessarily attached to anything else because it doesn't always come down that
far. It's really regional - in my mind, anyway. Stuff can come out of there, a
place that's isolated in that way. That's what I like and dislike about it. But
I think we have a really good ... Nowadays it feels to me - and I don't know if
it's just how I'm engaged in it right now, but it seems that I've seen in
Florida is driving. Wouldn't you say?
Brent: There's a lot of really good bands down
there. And I agree with the community thing. Having been in bands in Chicago
and Massachusetts, Florida's way cooler of a music community for heavy bands.
Scott: Everybody knows everybody.
Brent: Yep. And because it is isolated and we
don't get maybe as a many national tours as other places, we do a lot of shows
together.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Brent: And it's like let's put five of the best
bands in the area on one bill together and get some heads out and just have
some fun. And there's a really cool vibe like that. A lot of DIY venues have
popped up over the years, people just wanting to put on shows. And now it's
grown into a fest situation, where every city and promoter have their own
festivals now. And all the bands are doing that, so that's become kind of a
cool thing. It's super incestuous. Everybody's been there with other bands.
Scott: (laughs) There's only so many people that
can fit down there.
Brent: Yeah. This guy's putting out everybody
else's records.
Scott: Yeah, yeah.
Brent: This guy does all the tee shirts. This guy
does all the art for the shows. Yeah,
it's a cool community. Oh, you have a studio...
Scott: It reminds me of New Orleans in that way
too. That place ... kind of likes living in that way too.
Brent: Mm-hmm.
So
what don't you like about Florida?
Brent: Oh.
Scott: (laughs)
Brent: Being a Northerner-
Scott: Oh, right there!
Brent: It's a little slow for my taste. It's a
slower pace, which probably effects why the music is the way it is. But just in
general, it's a slower pace, and I'm not the most patient person on the planet.
So the driving is fucking awful. The heat during the summer is just brutal. I
mean, June to September, you pretty much can't leave your house because it's so
humid and it rains all the damn time. And it's basically like Norway in the
winter - Florida in the summer. Same thing. High suicide rate. Can't leave your
fucking house. For me, I'm not used to it. I'm still not used to it. I've lived
in Florida for almost ten years. But I love the music community. I love the
people that I've met down there. Down to earth, real people. I dig that. You
don't get that in a lot of other places. People are very disingenuous in
general, especially in the music scene. "Oh, you guys are tiny. This band
looks tiny." You know, that type of bullshit.
Scott: "Really exciting. Can we borrow your
head?"
Brent: Yeah. That's not that type of vibe.
Everybody wears each other's shirts down there, and it's a real genuine love
for the other bands.
So
are you guys planning on gambling while you're here, and if so, what do you
guys play?
Scott: If
I did, I'd play Roulette or something where I could just sit for hours and
drink.
Brent: But no we probably won't gamble. We brought
money for weed.
Scott: Yeah, legal weed. That's right. I smoke
fucking weed and that's all, dude. No gambling.
Brent: Yeah.
Scott: Just shows, man. Just shows.
Alright.
Here's the big question right here.
Scott: Oh man.
Which
member of Hollow Leg do you predict is going to go all out Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas, and why do you say that?
Brent: I don't know...
Scott: Don't look at me. It's Tommy.
Brent: (laughing) It's probably Tommy.
Scott: Tequila Toe Tom.
Brent: Yeah, I mean.
Scott: I don't know. What time is it right now?
We're all here to party. We're here to party.
Which
member's the wild card that, like, we're really keeping track on.
Scott: Tommy.
Brent: Probably our bass player Tom.
Scott: When he turns it on, dude, he turns it on.
Brent: This is like Disneyland for him.
Scott: (laughs)
Brent: Anywhere that's like legal weed...
Scott: Gambling too.
Brent: You see a smile ear to ear. He's the guy.
Scott: He woke up this morning, the first thing he
said was weed.
(laughs)
Weed.
Scott: Yeah, yeah. And then the second thing he
said was tequila, so.
(laughs)
Brent: But it's on. We came Thursday night to play
on Saturday afternoon, so it's on. We're here to party and enjoy some bands and
fucking hang out with people that we haven't see in a while - or see all the
time, but we're here to party with them. It's just a fun fucking environment.
What a great idea.
Scott: Yeah, right.
Brent: It's a real cool thing. Just from the shit
I've seen online too, it seems like there's a lot of repeat people from last
year who have come back to do the same thing, see their friends. It's almost
like a camp in a way.
Scott: Yeah, it is.
Brent: It's like a weekend metal camp for people
that like...
Scott: Tip this place over.
Brent: And now you're seeing it at other festivals
too. There's a lot of people here this weekend that we met at Maryland Doom
Fest either last year of the year before, that are like doing the festival
circuit, regardless of whether they work for some kind of media faction or not,
if they're here working a publication, or they're just fans. And a lot of the
bands are the same too. Our day at Maryland Doom Fest this year, we had Heavy Temple
and The
Skull on our day. They're playing the same day, same stage with us
here.
Scott: Yeah.
Brent: So it's cool. It's really cool. Stoked to
be a part of it. We're all going to party our faces off for sure.
Yeah
officer, I’m busted, take my punk ass to jail man, but don’t take my fucking stash,
not the “Crown”.
What crown you may ask? Only one of the sludgiest damn records you’ll hear this year, hell Persil won’t erase the grime
these filth dealers deliver. To put it
simply this record slays and with our kinda fun title for the article, it
reflects that some of you lame asses haven’t already given this record the
attention it deserves.
Released way back on March 4th via
Italian premiere sludge dealers Argonauta Records, the
gloves are off for one final throw of the dice to ensure that this fucking
spectacular record gets the attention it deserves. So coupled with an advisory sticker stating “The
Album most guaranteed to kick your ass”, you can check out “Crown” in full in our cunningly titled “Not so
Exclusive Exclusive Stream”. You absolutely
will not be disappointed, because this record is beast.
“Crown”
is reissued in the USA on 24th June and is available to buy here,
as well as artwork and full track listing
“Crown” CS//DD//LP track listing:
01).
Seaquake
02).
Coils
03).
The Serpent in the Ice
04).
Atra
05).
Electric Veil
06).
Seven Heads
07).
New Cult
Live Rituals
06/21-Burro bar, Jacksonville FL
06/22- Basement, Atlanta GA
06/23 Maywood, Raleigh NC
06/25 Fredrick, MD (Doom Fest)
06/26 Reggies, Wilmington NC
