Petrification – Hollow of the Void (Petrified Trees Metal)

It’s that time of year where I just need a little bit of this. Mainly because I hate poplar trees, see there’s one outside of my house and I just want to chop it the hell down. A tree joke? I’m not sure the band thought so hard about their name, see. The process of trees turning into stone. I guess other things can be petrified, but trees were the first thing that came to my mind, so sorry guys. Coming from Portland, Oregon, where I’m pretty sure there are lots of tree, it does make sense. Trees on the brain maybe, so much that they thought it sounded metal, when it’s actually trees man. At least the cover doesn’t have any trees on it and I can stop with the stupid joke already (I actually won’t). Jason Barnett, whose work I’ve only briefly seen before, hits it out of the park with this one, using a whole tree as a bat. Got you there are more of those coming. I don’t even know what in the hell is going on there, but it doesn’t matter. There’s a big spider, some ghost boat, a cave of green slime rivers, it’s just perfect all around. And hey, after hearing all my worthless tree references you, like me, probably feel like the individual in the middle there, carved out by worms and a living husk that was once mortal. Now that sounds like death metal, and Hollow of the Void most certainly is.

  

I’m trying to think how to say this a new way, this thing in my mind I’ve said a million times before. I’ve probably said it like this already too, so oh well, I’m a fake. Nothing new here. Petrification are not bringing anything you haven’t heard before. They’re one tree in a forest of death metal (sorry had to get at least one more, and I probably have another), but it’s a big tree, and when you happen upon it; you will notice it. That’s how Hollow of the Void works. This quintet just know how to play death metal. The riffs are fist-pump worthy, head-slam worthy, and body-slam worthy (into a tree or two). I could cut down an entire forest to this, on repeat, or random, and turn all those pathetic wood beings into pulp from which I can print more copies of Hollow of the Void. The great thing about listening to it is you can pretty much start it anywhere, ignoring the “Prelude,” “Interlude,” and “Conclusion” tracks. Even then, they provide a brief moment to breathe before Petrification starts chopping again. This album just does what it needs to the right way, though no further. It’s totally content to be the lumberjack, and not the oligarch running the entire operation. Worth a purchase of the upcoming vinyl? I’ll leave that up to you, tree lover.

 

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Written by Stanley Stepanic

Petrification – Hollow of the Void
Memento Mori, Sentient Ruin Laboratories
4.1 / 5