Last week, HOLLOW WORLD unveiled their savage new track WILDFIRE and announced their new album EXANIMATE release details - the album out on March 17th. Having just played alongside some of Australia's best extreme metal artists on the Thrash, Blast Grind Festival alongside King Parrot and Psycroptic, today they are rolling out their Exanimate Album tour dates across Australia.
Tomatrax caught up with Benjamin Roberts from the band to ask a few questions.
How did the band form?
The band formed from the remains of another band - called Wychbury Hill. After coming to a point where there were no original members anymore they decided to rename the group.
Where did the name Hollow World come from?
So Hollow World was initially just a name that the band had on a list of potential names after the decision to re-brand. At first it was the only name out of the list that sounded any good and wasn't already being used by another band already. At first it had no particular relevance to lyrical content, but as we have evolved as a group over the years the lyrics have become more reflective of the name.
You have your new album coming out this month, how does it feel to have it finished and ready to go?
Yes we do! "Exanimate" comes out on March 17th! It is so exciting - we put so much into the album and now that it is ready to launch it really is the most excited I've ever been. We cut absolutely no corners on it - and it really shows. The sound is incredible and we are just so happy with it all. It's heavy as hell, fast as hell and super melodic in sections too. We're ll just really anxious to get it out and see the reactions to it now.
Where did the name Exanimate come from?
Exanimate basically means to be extinct. Given that the concept for the album revolves around the wipin gout of both humans and the planet - we thought that name was fitting for the story - and also being the closing track of the album - we thought it'd make the best name.
The album features two stories, one about humans being infected by a virus, the other about humans being a virus, what was the inspiration behind these stories?
I'd been thinking about doing a concept for the album and this story just kind of started forming in my head by itself. I started looking at the way people interact with everything in their lives, and started to see how disconnected we're all becoming, and in that disconnection we are also cultivating a culture of disposability - where everything is designed to be discarded. This isn't just prevalent in material things - it can be seen in the way people treat each other too. Everything and everyone are becoming disposable and this started working it's way into the story I was writing. I wanted to communicate my idea of where the world will end up if we continue down this path.
What made you pick 'Wildfire' as the album's latest single?
We released the song 'Defiling Paradise' as the first single off the album late last year - as we knew it'd be the opening song off the album so would make a good first release. "Wildfire" was more considered than that - we had a good listen to all the songs off the album and picked one that not only was really listenable but also a song that we thought would make a good video clip. "Wildfire" just really jumped out at us like that.
You're about to tour Australia, what can fans expect from your show?
Yes we are! Heading out across the country with our good mates Daemon Pyre and Zeolite. Anyone coming out can expect relentless high speeds, high energy and an all-round good time. We are a band that loves to have fun on stage and loves the audience to have fun too. Expect plenty of drinks to be downed, plenty of brutals and plenty of buffoonery.
Do you ever listen to your own music?
Yes - I listen to our music all the time. I'm big on writing music that I actually like listening to. If I don't like listening it then why would anybody else want to listen to it? So yeah, I'm big on that. We all are.
What other music do you listen to?
I listen so much different music. My favourite of all time is Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - I listen to them almost every day. Other than that of course I listen to a stack of metal. LAtely I've been spinning Dreamless by Fallujah a lot, that album is off it's head! I also listen to a lot of hip-hop, lots of rock too - I'm pretty broad with my tastes in music.
What do you have planned after your upcoming tour?
Once the tour is over and done we plan to look at a follow up tour for some time in the second half of the year. We'd really like to tour this album internationally if the opportunity presented itself - so we are working on making that happen. There are a lot of other things in the works too, but nothing I can divulge until they've been confirmed. 2017 is going to be a big and busy year for Hollow World, that's for sure.