RSS Feed


THE HOLE
A Monument To The End Of The World

Necromance (2014)
Rating: 5.5/10

The Canary Islands have never exactly been the home of thrash / death metal, but in 2010 the shadowy corners of this metropolis gave birth to a quartet of musicians who became known as The Hole.

Eduardo Rodríguez (vocals / bass), Ancor Amador (lead guitar), Pablo Guerrero (guitars) and Héctor Lorenzo (drums) is the recording line-up on this 11-track debut outing. However, Amador has since left, with Ancor Ramírez joining as his replacement.

With A Monument To The End Of The World we are treated to a tight, thrashing death metal opus delivered with passion and aggression combined. As influences go, may I suggest just a dim hint of Slayer at its most belligerent, with a faint sprig of Sepultura, but for the most part this is a contemporary extreme metal album by design comprised of deep, groove-laden melody and an injection of Teutonic thrash. Vocally it’s all spit and venom, but such is the clean cut nature of each riff, each damaging drum beat and every swirling lead, that while the opus remains accessible it’s a sum of many parts at once embracing the chugging crunch of classic thrash with modern death metal dynamics.

Never fully extreme because of its tendency to dabble with melody, tracks such as ‘Dark Of My Soul’ tend to become hindered rather than energised, but a deep vein of traditional metal aesthetics runs throughout and this is not an entirely bad thing, although I just feel that at times The Hole needs to make up its mind what sort of beast it wants to be. For instance, ‘Apocalyptic Collapse’ is an all-out death metal feast for the ears bolstered by those gruff, double-tracked vocal gargles, growls and yaps, while ‘Pro Patria Mori’ is a mix of melodic metal featuring a clinical drum sound, but that marrying of extreme gruff vocals with less threatening structures doesn’t always impress me.

And this is where time and time again – for me anyway – so much contemporary metal fails, because this opus can become quite a cold experience at times, but one that does have its good points, especially with the thrash charge of ‘Harsh Times’ with its gang shouts, and the pulverising ‘Hellride’ which suffers from being just too long.

However, having said that, this is a band that clearly is able to learn quickly and there is most definitely a fantastic maturity exhibited on the likes of ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Misanthropic Wave’, but overall it’s a bit of a mixed bag that needs a good ironing out before it takes to the next path.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share