I am fairly certain most of us here had a stoner phase... no not THAT one, the music one! Actually, it's even better if you combined the two seeing how well they fit. Anyhow, I'm mentioning it in past tense because at one point, I just grew tired of hearing an unbelievable amount of bands sounding nigh identical to each another. Basically you have a few... let's call them camps. Notable examples of this include: the Black Sabbath worship camp, the Electric Wizard/Sleep one and if it was a good day, the Mastodon camp.
It goes without saying that there are some excellent bands that I still very much love, Elder, Weedpecker, Pallbearer, Lesser Glow and yes, Mastodon being the first ones that come to mind but when looking at the whole picture, things are simply not that enticing.
Enter my friend Alex Parkinson's band Mothman And The Thunderbirds whose debut Into The Hollow will finally be unleashed to the wider public this Friday. Now, him being from Pennsylvania, a state known for a little label called Relapse Records and bands such as Full Of Hell, Rivers Of Nihil and Rosetta as well as many others, Into The Hollow has a solid chance of not being a bog-standard release. And guess what, it's not!
To quote the Conan-wearing Chad himself:
If anything, Into The Hollow is a stoner metal album for people who are bored of stoner metal.
Lying, he is not, because across this eleven track long journey, you'll struggle to find a song that obviously resembles another. Sure there is this big Mastodon influence creeping about but the cool thing is that, unlike many bands that focus on a particular era of their career, Alex took inspiration from all of them!
Take, for example, the chaotic Remission-like sludgyness on the rager "Roko's Basilisk" and compare that to the "Curl Of The Burl"-meets-Leviathan chonky boi "Indrid Cold" and then compare both of those with "Nomad" whose slightly oriental acoustic riff harkens back to "The Last Baron".
It's all wonderfully diverse and one would think how this disjointed nature reflects in the lyrical department but here's where you're (partially) wrong. I say partially since Mothman And The Thunderbirds mostly revolves around conspiracy theories and cryptozoology but there is a slight touch of folklore which usually manifests in the shorter, interlude-ish songs like "Squonk". "Squonk" is very interesting as it not only made me aware of the eponymous creature but also perfectly showcases another big influence Into The Hollow wears on its multi-winged sleeves(?). It's a name you "probably" heard about, it's drum roll Devin Townsend! You thought you were safe, you fools, I'll always find a way to mention him!
Seriously though "Squonk" is a quaint folky gem that sounds like a cross between "Hypergeek" and "Ki" which is, as it turns out, an amazing combo, as both songs belong to two often times overlooked records from his career. So yeah, I am all over "Squonk" (try taking that picture out of your head suckers!) but the track that precedes it is also a very strong contender for my favorite song from the entire record.
"Cloud Giant" is simply put, a wonderful, uplifting and dangerously catchy track that also scratches a huge itch. The song "Creature Lives" by Mastodon is among my all time favorite tracks and for years I've been looking for a song that has a similar tone to it, one of loneliness but also one of adventure and contentment. So it brings me truly great joy to report that "Cloud Giant" not only provides that extremely specific vibe but also mixes it up with Synchestra-like bends and guitar tone and by gods is it glorious!
Which brings me to another important aspect of Into The Hollow - the guests. There are four of them, on "Cloud Giant" specifically there's Joe Sobieski handling the vocal duties whose feature just happens to be my favorite.
On the opposite side of the spectrum we have Alex's wife Kirby leading the vocal charge on the urgent and thrashy "The Simpsons = Real Footage".
Unfortunately, in the words of the great Georges St. Pierre: "I am not impressed by your performance."
OK maybe that's a bit unfair because Kirby has a nice, albeit nasal timbre and when she hits those high notes, it's quite good but at a few key points she's off the mark or on the verge of losing a bit of breath. This happens mostly during the choruses whereas on the verses it's mostly smooth sailing. Initially this track bothered me the most but after a while I started focusing more on the instrumentals which, considering how hard they go, turned out to be the right call. Out of all the eleven tracks here, this has the most convincing groove and by that I mean it slaps which is no small feat considering "Hollow Earth" exists.
But let's return to the vocals a bit because alas, this is not the only instance where they posed an issue.
Before Jason Roberts' (Breaths, CHNNLR) awesome feature, Alex seems to be struggling with certain heights when singing cleanly until his last verse where he nails it and this trend also reflects in "Agarthan Riders". Luckily, things never reach critical levels because the instrumentation and choruses always deliver, some slightly more than others of course but regarding that, I don't have any genuine complaints.
The drum kit sound though, could use some refinement, mainly the snare and crash as the other parts sound great. They just lack that oomph both the guitar and bass possess, the bass especially. When it comes to the actual mix, things sit nicely and apart from the rare occasion where vocals drown out the guitars, I am very pleased with the results.
After all, this is a one man band AND a debut, a quite good one mind you.
What else... oh yeah, the opening and closing tracks! The former, "Mothman Takes Flight" reminds me of a thing I never knew I wanted - sludgy sitcom theme songs! It's stupid fun and fits the whole theme of ancient aliens and conspiracy theories wonderfully. The beautiful closer "Hollow Sun" however is a completely different story and as it turns out, my favorite song off Into The Hollow. The ethereal atmosphere, comforting lyrics, sensational main riff, blistering sweep picking, vocal interplay, the whole damn thing is just top tier and for the longest time I could not remember what it reminds me off but then I got it - Enslaved. The (I presume) open chord clean strumming and atmosphere really evoke some In Times or E-ra (get it?) guitar plucks and that's never a bad thing in my book!
What I will now say could be considered as "reviewer privilege", I assure you it absolutely is but Alex, please, please, please use more of that clean tone in your future endeavors, it's pure gold dude!
OK with that said along with everything else, where do I stand or rather... squonk (I can't stop help) with Into The Hollow? If my thoughts translated well onto (virtual) paper, Into The Hollow should evoke plenty of interest because it's a success and one that a) makes me proud of muh boy and b) becomes progressively rewarding with revisits, especially after getting through those few rough edges. Not gonna lie, had my doubts initially and was even worried at one point but Mothman And The Thunderbirds get a nice fat pass, now am I referring to the stoner one or the stoner one, or maybe even both? dramatic gasp
You probably know the answer but just in case I have to spell it for you - go check this out and support your local squonks and/or similar beings! Loveloth out. yeets into the Hollow Sun
Into The Hollow was released independently on May 21st.
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