EP review: All Hail The Yeti – Within The Hollow Earth

The Hollow Earth Theory is a (frankly bonkers) concept dating back to the 17th Century, which proposes our blue planet contains a substantial interior space, inhabited, perhaps, by all kinds of unspeakable creatures. As anyone who’s munched popcorn through this year’s blockbuster monster-mash Godzilla Vs. Kong will know, it can be the basis for some head-spinning flights of fancy, full of gut-lurching gravity inversions, swooping pterodactyls and massive hairy beasts exploring their ancient lineage. It’s fitting, then, that Los Angeles collective All Hail The Yeti head there for their most satisfyingly adventurous release to date.

Formed all the way back in 2006, and with three albums to their name – 2012’s self-titled debut, 2016’s Screams From A Black Wilderness, 2018’s Highway Crosses – fans will already know what to expect. Although they’re based in the glittering City Of Angels, these lads draw inspiration from the murkier folklore of the United States’ deep south and Pacific Northwest, pumping out a macabre-Americana sound to match that’s two parts sludge-metal to one of the heavier-end grunge.

Bury Your Memory sees them bowing at the altar of Pantera, Down and Eyehategod right out of the gate, with Connor Garritty’s wailing promise that ‘When we die, we die alone / There’s no returning home!’ sounding like it could’ve come from any point in the last 30 years. Headless Valley (based on the secrets of the Nahanni people) pours on the gasoline, with riffage that verges on nu-metal at points and vocals indebted to the grit of hardcore. Funeral Heart is a straight-up gumbo-munching banger. Nidavelir – named after the old Norse home of the Dwarves – sees them mining tried-and-tested steely influences

Pivotally, with Within The Hollow Earth more about refinement than breaking new ground, the record’s seven-tracks don’t outstay their welcome. Cold Dead Leaves knocks about with rambunctious intent before spiralling into a well of heady heaviosity. Cry Of The Waheela – a reference to Canada’s mythical wolf-creature – gnashes through. By The Great Dying, listeners will be sated. Hardly a record to convert the doubters, but one that will delight those who want to believe.

Verdict: 3/5

For Fans Of: Down, Alice In Chains, EyeHateGod

Within The Hollow Earth is released on November 12 via Minus Head.

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