Our Hollow, Our Home: A Heavy Metal Celebration Tin

At the beginning of March last year, barely anyone in the UK knew what Zoom was – as of now, it’s the bane of many people’s lives. It cannot be denied, though, that it’s been huge in keeping the world connected when meeting in person wasn’t allowed; for Southampton’s OUR HOLLOW, OUR HOME however, it’s done far more than that.

“We wouldn’t have the new album if it wasn’t for Zoom,” reveals guitarist and vocalist Toby Young. “It gave us a platform to be able to communicate during lockdown and continue the band process of writing songs. I’d demo it, touch base with Connor [Hallisey, lead vocalist] on Zoom to work out how the song would sound in terms of verse length and structure and then write the vocals. As Connor had no way to do pre-production vocals though, I’d speak all his lines so as soon as we could go into the studio, we had a version ready to go.”

“So next time you listen to one of our songs,” adds Connor. “Imagine all of my parts spoke in a really monotone voice, including my screams!”

What follows is an attempt to discuss the impact of the pandemic on a band who, after the very positive reception to both 2017’s Hartsick and 2019’s follow up In Moment//In Memory, were seemingly on the cusp of breaking through as torchbearers for the next generation of British metalcore, but Toby interjects the moment that cusp is suggested. “It’s kind of you to say that, but we just roll with the punches; I don’t know where we are half the time!”

“We’re really appreciative of where our two albums have got us,” adds Connor. “You’re right though, it was starting to get to a point where we were touring more regularly, the shows were getting busier, more people were coming to the merch table and there were more people just generally interested in the band.”

“I think we’re quite lucky really,” continues Toby. “We don’t really feel like we’ve taken many steps backwards and I feel very fortunate we’ve come out fairly unscathed. In fact, I’d go to say it’s done us a favour.”

With part-time jobs indefinitely on hold, it allowed time to put all energy into the band’s third album, entitled Burn In The Flood. Although there’s no direct narrative running throughout this time, In Moment//In Memory looked at the five stages of grief in order, there is an overarching theme of being trapped within your own emotions. “I can’t write an album without a blueprint – nine times out of ten the song names and structure of the album are written before a single riff has been put onto track” explains Toby. “We also thought it would be really nice to have an album where we could cover a really wide array of topics, from different perspectives. Above all though, we just wanted to write ten songs that slapped, and we ended up with eleven!”

“We wanted to put ourselves in other people’s shows when writing these songs too,” adds Connor. “We’ve always tried to, lyrically, write songs that wear their heart on their sleeve so that they’re relatable to a lot of people, and whilst we didn’t want to lose any of that, thinking about things from someone else’s point of view was something we hadn’t really tried before.”

Burn In The Flood is, without question, the band’s most diverse album to date as well, not just incorporating metalcore but elements of deathcore, nu-metal and even pop punk at times. However, above all, it works, and providing it does, they run with it. “When people ask me who my favourite band are in interviews, I say it’s us, because we’re an amalgamation of all our favourite bands,” affirms Toby. “We’re the metal band of Celebrations tins; there’s something for everybody!”

Connor agrees. “You don’t have to call yourselves a ‘melodic metalcore band’ or give yourselves five different subgenres within metalcore. At this point in time, we’re just a straight up metal band and that’s all that matters.”

The band didn’t just find time to get an album done either – they also created their own hot sauce. Why? “Why not?!” laughs Toby. “Basically, I was a chef for ten years and I like spicy food; when we go on tour I take a barbecue with us and cook for everyone each night. This one (called Burn In The Flood as well) is more of a spicy barbecue sauce – the next one, the Heat Six sauce, is going to blow your head off!”

No doubt that the hot sauce will be sold when OUR HOLLOW, OUR HOME can finally tour again; the question now, particularly with a blistering new album behind them, is what will be more incendiary: their condiment or their performance…

Burn In The Flood is out now via //Hollow Music. 

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