Hollow Leg to Release Echoes EP Dec. 6
Floridian sludge metallers Hollow Leg aren’t letting 2024 go without getting one more gut-punch in. The blow will come in the form of Echoes, a companion four-song EP to earlier this year’s Dust (review here), which was the four-piece first offering in half a decade. With Echoes, the band admit a little that there’s a continuity from one to the next — Echoes and Dust, hmm, doesn’t that ring a bell? — and so they’ll receive a joint vinyl release in the New Year, which if you’re gonna basically do an album split into two parts makes sense to compile it all together. And gruff vocalist Scott Angelacos gives the “Dust and echoes” title line(s) in Echoes opener “Last Tribe,” so yeah, the sense is very much of the band revealing the full scope of the project that began this past May with the release of Dust.
I’m just digging into the songs as the announcement comes through, so I’ll hold off any actual opinion-having, but if you know Hollow Leg, you know the pummel being discussed by the PR wire below, so I won’t keep you any longer. Have at it:
Sludge veterans Hollow Leg to release ECHOES, the follow-up and sister EP to DUST, on December 6th
New album ECHOES, sister EP to DUST, out December 6th
Self-released (Digital)
Hollow Leg have no plans to slow their decade-plus quest to pummel and groove, and 2024 has proven to be one of their most prolific years yet since the band’s formation in 2010. Following on the heels of the DUST EP released this May, the crew return with its sister EP ECHOES, sonically both kin and counterpart to its forebear.
Where DUST saw the brutality and bone-shaking aspects of Hollow Leg’s sludge and doom stand front and center, ECHOES finds the band pivoting towards another part of the heavy spectrum. Still as crushing as ever, the 2nd EP leans further into groove and psychedelia, creating a lean, mean riff machine of hooks and atmospheric guitar leads, all running on the pounding rhythms that are the lifeblood of Hollow Leg. Sledgehammer guitars and drums rolling through thick distortion are balanced by passages of icy, atmospheric serenity, tied together by raging vocals and thunderous tones.
Even 14 years into their existence, Hollow Leg continue to explore and evolve, and ECHOES is one of their most dynamic and adventurous works to date. Released digitally, the two EPs will also be combined into a true dyad as a vinyl release in 2025 on Third House Communications.
IN THE BAND’S OWN WORDS:
“We wanted to change up the way we wrote and released a record this time around. The original idea was just simply making EPs, however many that was, but somewhere during the demoing process we decided we had an overarching theme and sound/vibe to these ideas, and maybe instead of making them separate pieces we could make them a series, parts one and two.
DUST & ECHOES are made to stand on their own but also as a tandem, which is why we are releasing them the way we are, and as a split vinyl in 2025. There’s also some practical reasoning behind it, but really it just boiled down to wanting to try something different. ECHOES is the slightly more hopeful counterpart to DUST, but thematically there is a through line.
Scott and Zeuss did a great job tying the sonics together as well, while also allowing them to keep their own personalities. We’re very excited about this output!”
Tracklist:
1. Last Tribe (5:11)
2. Bury Our Kings (4:43)
3. Red Skies (3:28)
4. Ride the Wave/Dig the Grave (6:33)
Hollow Leg is:
Scott Angelacos – vocals
Brent Lynch – guitar/backing vocals
Tom Crowther – bass
John Stewart – drums
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