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Hollow Ground: Devir
Hollow Ground Devir new music review

Hollow Ground: Devir

Avant Garde Thrash Metal
Rating: 3.0/5.0

Candlelight Records
www.myspace.com/hollowgroundofficial
Review: Miguel Blardony,  03.21.2010

Ah, Brazil. Home of the world's most colorful metal scene, from the incinerating death metal of Krisiun to far more accessible Angra and everything in between. Certainly falling 'in between' the music spectrum is Hollow Ground and their curious collection of thrash metal songs inside this debut called Devir. What makes the material at hand 'curious' is the strange but surprising oddities on the album where these guys switch off their amps for some bossa nova, Latin sounds, and assorted fare. In fact, this writer believes Hollow Ground should scrap their two-bit Slayer-meets-Machinehead act and do the bossa thing full time, because man! Do they sound infinitely better just letting the silky music pour from your speakers/earphones/headphones.

Opener Collision Course is total Slayer plagiarism while its eclectic follow up In The Warm Green Mist is just crazy, crazy, crazy. Whatever these dudes are smoking, it inspires a lot of experimentation. Sometime around the album's middle, an epic dirge of King Diamond proportions called The Becoming rears its ugly mug complete with a string section, apocalyptic utterances, and awesome ambience. Now Hollow ground may be weirdos, but they sure know to keep matters interesting.

After a cursory first listen, it's apparent that the real gems on Devir aren't the aggressive parts. Now go right ahead and enjoy the tender aural lovemaking that's Longing, the ethnically tinged Uatu-The Watcher, and the soothing album closer that's pure eroticness titled Fim. These three are the album's most surprising moments and when imbibed one after the other, it's pure honey to thyne ears. For a debut, the production isn't shoddy, the music is ace, and the guys behind this unsettling chameleon actually know how to write decent songs.

If you want your aural kicks satisfied by schizophrenic fare from Brazil, then by all means grab a copy of Devir. A mediocre thrash group they might be, but when the boys turn a new leaf, you hear the band's potential to provide endless gratification.

CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

In Short

If you want your aural kicks satisfied by schizophrenic fare from Brazil, then by all means grab a copy of Devir. A mediocre thrash group they might be, but when the boys turn a new leaf, you hear the band's potential to provide endless gratification.

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