Incised are back with their new album The Hollow Earth and it’s a great follow-up to their last offering Descending Winters – indeed, it picks up where the EP left off.
The Hollow Earth is jam-packed with hard-hitting and powerful tracks, and each song leaves its own mark on you. The tracks have a lot of momentum to them, which really helps to keep the album moving, and everything sounds so big and chunky that you can’t help but want to bang your head along to the music – which is surely testament to a great listen.
A particular highlight of the album is second track Bloody Mary. Beginning with hammering drums before the guitars and then the full band joins in, it really helps to build the track up and grab your attention from the outset. The vocal performance is also very strong, with the emotion dripping from the growled vocals especially evident, and when coupled with the chunky instrumentation it really packs a punch!
Unfortunately, whilst the album does have a lot of substance and character, there is barely any variation between this and Descending Winters, so it does feel like Incised have played things a little bit safe and have stuck to a formular they know works, rather than step outside the box and try something new. There’s no shame in this, because as a whole The Hollow Earth is a great listen, but it would have been nice to see Incised take a risk or two!
8/10
