In 2023, Finnish metal squad RED WEDDING shed its skin and reformed as HOLLOWBORN. Their first single, “Black Box,” was released in late 2023 via Red House FMP, and the debut was said to come out in 2024. Well, it didn’t, but as the saying goes, good things will come to those who have the patience to wait. Finally, that long-awaited debut will see the light of day on April 4th, 2025. Set to be released independently (I presume since there was no info available about the label), “66 Sins” rolls out twelve songs of high-octane metal sprinkled with a liberal amount of progressive flourishes. The new band name is such an intriguing coinage that I had to look it up on the Internet. It could be a term lifted from the Adventure Quest World video game; in the game lore, a hollowborn is someone who has been granted a new life by an entity called Shadow Fiend in exchange for their soul – the good old Faustian bargain, it seems! This video game reference might explain why there appears to be a Spanish deathcore by the same name, too. Whatever the case, the name has a nice ring to it. The music of these shadowy Finns is inspired by a wide array of flavors, ranging from PERIPHERY‘s mind-bending prog complexity to the endorphin-laden metalcore of ARCHITECTS and from SYBREED‘s industrial soundscapes to INTERVALS’ mathy riff-origamis. So, if you’re into a nice mélange of neck-snapping, technical riffs, and the occasional groovathons in disorienting time signatures that still sound diabolically catchy, this fine selection will be right down your alley.
The game is set afoot with the full-tilt metal boogie of “Aeon.” The guitar riffs keep pounding away on a slinky groove-metal trajectory, and vocalist Julius Nikander‘s barbed delivery resonates with an almost LAMB OF GOD-like aura. When the harsh sermon is interrupted by his brief, clean-vocal passage, I’m sold. What a great hook! And it gets even better – the hook is followed by a steamrolling riffage that would make the diesel engine of an M4 Sherman pale in comparison. There is very little HOLLOWBORN could have done differently by way of making one hell of a first impression.
Mostly, the songs on this debut offering fall into two categories. First, the pumped-up and groovy riffathons tiptoe the fine line between PERIPHERY and LAMB OF GOD. Songs such as “The Pitch Black Symphony,” “Dystopian,” “Domino,” “Hellbound,” and “Fallout” fit the label, more or less, with the last one rolling out such a machine-gun riffage that it surely will give us a run for the money in the mosh pits, quite literally. Of this bunch, “Dystopian” showcases Nikander‘s clean vocal prowess to a resonant effect. Such a trait is not always welcomed with open arms in the most Puritanical factions of the metal brethren, but for me, it surely does the trick. Besides, if the somewhat pop-tinged clean vocals are the deal breaker, then the songs of the second category will be too much to take, no doubt.
The thing is, the rest of the songs resonate with a tad more atmospheric aura, recalling all the abominable (66) sins of metalcore. The single, “Black Box,” which was released well in advance of the album, provides the strongest pop-tinged metalcore vibes, triggering nice flashbacks of ARCHITECTS and BRING ME THE HORIZON, especially in the chorus. A younger me might have disapproved of such heretics, but it appears I have grown softer with age, and now, I’m all in for this sort of metal conduct. Music is all about the beauty of contrast, and these guys sure know how to balance brutal riffs with haunting atmospherics.
Whereas the opener enchants us with its irresistible, relentless grooves, “Mind Chaos” leads us deeper into the band’s atmospheric side, recalling the sound of INTERVALS and even PLINI during the instrumental sections. I have a reputation for falling head over heels for bands that mix ambient soundscapes and djenty riffs, so had these metal rogues not won me over already, they would have done so at this point. One of the stand-out tracks on this magnificent outing is “Breaking Point,” with its INTERVALS-like riff ostinatos that soar above the atmospheric soundscapes, only to be punctuated by the more brutal, almost deathcore-like flourishes here and there.
Last, this mighty show of strength ends with an epic, atmospheric closer, “Oceandeep,” recalling some of those haunting excursions into the stratospheric heights of atmospheric djent as conducted by TESSERACT. So, once through the album, I cannot escape the feeling that these proggy metal rogues must have been around for quite some time – there is no other way to explain the coherent songwriting and execution of this caliber. “66 Sins” is quite a landmark album to be the first step onto the Finnish prog-metal scene by these ruffians.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Aeon
- The Pitch Black Symphony
- Black Box
- Dystopian
- Mind Chaos
- 66 Sins
- Breaking Point
- Hellbound
- Domino
- Fallout
- Mayhem
- Oceandeep
Lineup
Julius Nikander – vocals
Anton Louko – lead guitars
Ronnie Roos – guitars
Bryan Ugartechea – bass
Jani Aalto – drums
Label
Independent
