EP REVIEW: Hollow Moon: Precursor – Hellir

HELLIR began life as a solo project for Daniel Shaneyfelt – a smörgåsbord of atmospheric black metal, vaporware, and a whole host of other styles. Now joined by Dylan Webb on drums, the duo plan to follow up their debut record, Wheel of Ghosts, with a new full-length, Hollow Moon, distributed across a trilogy of EPs. This triptych begins with Hollow Moon: Precursor – a statement of intent laden with a dark, heavy intensity.

Proceedings start ominously enough with Ishimura – muttered vocals beneath distant but growing dark ambient swells. Inevitably, it bursts into vocal roars, bass bombs, and guitar bends with a very modern metal feel. This formula repeats throughout the EP – a sharp juxtaposition of abrasion in discordant screams, scratchy drop-tuned guitars and staccato electronic effects against contemplative synths, plaintive piano and lower-register clean vocals, often all at the same time.

Both Firespray and Spiral open with slightly more traditional black metal – the former simultaneously slow in pace and rapid in its guitar work. The heavier sections of both songs have a kitchen-sink feel to the elements thrown in – changing up the drum feels and pacing every 15 seconds, finding a wide range of growls, screams or doubled vocals to use at any given moment, or throwing in extraneous guitar effects. The impatience of its variations is challenging, not least amidst the stuffed production, which struggles to convey any sense of dynamic range.

Spiral shares many of the same characteristics, in particular leaning into the discordant minor chord progressions of the darkest black metal, this time bringing in a guest guitar solo spot amidst the artificially down-tuned rhythm guitars. There’s no shortage of ideas here, evidenced best by a brief synth-wave nod in its closing moments. It’s an effective flurry of arpeggiations and 16-beat patterns that cleanse the palette after some sandpaper-like pedal riff breakdowns.

Amidst all this overproduction and impatience, the moments where HELLIR can take a breath and settle into a repeated hook are where the EP best succeeds, particularly on closer Below. The opening djent-style guitars may be more texture than unique, meaningful riffage, but it sticks the landing with its extended outro. A memorable clean vocal refrain, along with some consistency in the melodic progressions, provides a glue that allows the insistent musical and genre variations to elevate, rather than sink.

Hollow Moon: Precursor may draw on a broad palette of styles, but despite its unusual combinations on paper, it doesn’t sound experimental so much as just busy. It’s at its best when it finds a solid foundation on which to affix its many influences and ideas, but without this, it too often drowns in a sonic morass. There’s enough here to suggest that, if its maximalism can be tempered well, the rest of the trilogy could deliver much more creatively and musically.

Rating: 6/10

Hollow Moon: Precursor is out now via self release.

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