Malevich – Our Hollow (Review)

Malevich are a grindcore/sludge metal band from the US and this is their second album.

What foul, twisted mass of ugly heaviness do we have before us here then? I do so enjoy hybrid releases like this, where multiple styles and subgenres are smashed together into an almost unrecognisable whole. On Our Hollow Malevich take a sludgy grindcore approach, with a hefty somewhat blackened mixture of hardcore, doom, and post-metal thrown in for good measure, and then unleash it on the listener like a virulent plague.

The songs are dark and tortured, spitting venom from three vocalists, while the music takes the different ingredients, consumes them, and then vomits a hideous mess of distorted devastation back onto anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. The songs are varied in both style and duration, and the album holds attention due to both quality and visceral impact. The different styles are crushed together mercilessly and inform different parts of different songs in different ways. Ranging from face-melting extremity and blasting intensity one moment, to atmospheric worldbuilding via walls of sludge and post-metal the next, Malevich whip up an extreme metal storm on their newest release.

An impressive, destructive release. I highly recommend checking out Our Hollow at your earliest convenience.