HOLLOW WORLD // The Empty Kings of Bendigo

HOLLOW WORLD with Daemon Pyre, Zeolite, Splatterpuss & Internal Nightmare – The Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne – Saturday 25th March, 2017

Melbourne’s Hollow World is having a spectacular run of late, landing supports slots with Ne Obliviscaris, At the Gates and most recently Fleshgod Apocalypse. They’ve stuck to a relentless tour cycle, amassing a rather large and devout following across the nation.

Two years since their well received EP The Wrath Kept Within, Hollow World’s debut album Exanimate was met with immense hype and expectation. Almost everyone I met had nothing short of high praise for the album. As exciting as the album itself was the launch party at Melbourne’s iconic Bendigo Hotel. A near-sold out crowd massed to throw down with the technical death metallers. Along for the ride were New South Wales powerhouse Daemon Pyre, Tasmania’s Zeolite, South Australia’s Splatterpuss and Victorian natives Internal Nightmare.

Hollow World // Photo: Luke Graham

It’s a rare moment when a support act just grabs you by the throat and unleashes monstrous sounds at you; it’s even rarer when you have four support acts doing the same. From start to finish, Internal Nightmares & Splatterpuss unleashed their unique death metal brutality on an already swelling crowd. A true testament to the quality of Australian metal and the musicians that produce it, both bands were unfaltering in their technical displays and delivery of heavy metal brilliance.

As Zeolite took to the stage, our boozy crowd found themselves lost in the technical mastery of Zeolite’s set. As the final act prior to Hollow World’s much anticipated performance, Daemon Pyre gave the Bendigo Hotel one final arse kicking it so well deserved, with front man Sam Rilatt’s* paint-smeared body complimented the band’s groovy, death metal sound.

The set was a well-chosen, diverse collection of fan favourites, classics and bone-crushing material from Exanimate, not a single person in the packed venue was left disappointed with what they got that night.

Battered, bruised and heavily intoxicated, it was finally time for Hollow World to take to the stage and give Melbourne the album they’ve spent years on. Despite a rather funny technical error during the intro Agartha, the boys were quickly to regain momentum and expel crazy levels of technical brilliance onto the crowd, shortly before front man Ben Roberts’ appearance onto the stage, to which the audience below were greeted with a sublime performance of Defiling Paradise. If there’s two words that could describe Roberts’ stage personality, it’s batshit crazy. He was obviously keen to deliver a stellar performance and became apparent that Roberts’ was giving his absolute all during their set.

Members of the audience, myself included, are baffled as to how on earth drummer Michael Hodgson is maintaining such pin-point accurate yet blisteringly fast drumming, it looked like it was just another day in the office for him. Combined with the dual guitar mastery of Ormsby Guitars endorsees Theo Goslett and Michael Truscott and the hard-hitting low end excellence of bassist Josh Hynes, it only solidifies the statement that instrumentally, Hollow World are without a doubt one of the nation’s finest. Only to be further complimented by Roberts’ insane vocal capabilities and insane levels of on-stage charisma, it doesn’t surprise me in the least as to how these relatively young metallers have managed to climb the metal scene so quickly.

Hollow World // Photo: Luke Graham

The set was a well-chosen, diverse collection of fan favourites, classics and bone-crushing material from Exanimate, not a single person in the packed venue was left disappointed with what they got that night. Like most others, the true highlight of the night was the performance of what has become Hollow World’s flagship track Valley of The Ghelgath, to which the Bendigo Hotel was awash in a sea of headbanging and mosh pits.

Although the set ended rather abruptly, due to a miscommunication that saw the house music turn on straight after Valley of The Ghelgath, it was an extremely impressive performance from start to finish.

The supports were superb; there couldn’t have been any better choices for the night’s proceedings.

Not only should Hollow World be extremely proud of themselves for producing what could potentially be “Australian metal album of the year”, but in my opinion, have delivered one of the current front-runner for “Australian gig of the year”.

HOLLOW WORLD PHOTO GALLERY