Following closely on from their first full length album, The Lost Reveries in 2016, Naberus are back with another magnificent album in Hollow.  No second album syndrome here for these guys.

Kicking off with Slaves, bombastic drumming drives the song from the start alongside a great riff; it announces that Naberus are back with a vengeance.  Growling and screeching lyrics, the trademark of these guys greet the listener from the opening seconds of the song.

The album is another fourteen songs of metal that combine elements of melodic death metal and thrash seamlessly.  Solos and breakdowns are trademark of their music and you can find enough in here to keep punters happy.  Hollow is an album of varying intensity from the opening track where James Ash and Dan Ralph have really shown a growth in their song-writing ability.

Songs like Space to Breathe, kicking off with a slower opening than expected and never rising up above what would be considered mid-tempo for these guys.  The lyrics and delivery throughout this song gives you the knowledge that they aren’t afraid to change it up a bit and have produced a good one here.  I’ve been digging the riff they throughout the pre-chorus in this one.

Hollow and My Favourite Memory really expand on this new ability, taking the band in new but still familiar territory of the unique Naberus sound.  Lyrically the album tackles a number of themes, My Favourite Memory written about James’ father and his battle with dementia; Hollow being the band casting their view on what they saw as the hypocrisy of hate filled religious leaders during the gay marriage referendum in Australia. For me, Naberus have produced another really solid album that keeps me happy throughout, clocking in at just under an hour.

I really liked what Naberus brought to the table with The Lost Reveries and Hollow continues this in spades with a range of new facets.  It has a good mix of aggressive, in your face thrashing tracks that keep the head banging and variation that really spikes my interest.  The progressions into the variances from flat out speed show that Naberus are not afraid to experiment.  But in saying that, they still retain their sound in the couple of slower songs.  For me listening to this album was like slipping into a familiar jacket and having the bonus of finding fifty bucks in the pocket.

Naberus is:

  • James Ash (vocals),
  • Dan Ralph (guitar),
  • Jordan Mitchell (bass),
  • Chris Sheppard (drums) and
  • Dante Thomson (guitar).

Hollow was produced by James Ash at Kremation Studios and mixed by Henrik Udd (Bring Me The Horizon, Architects and stablemates – A Breach of Silence).  The album was mastered by Ermin Hamidovic (Periphery and Devin Townsend) at Systematic Productions.

Hollow is set to be released through Eclipse Records on June 29 2018.  Grab a copy!