Band:	Hollow Decay
Album:	The Frozen Trail
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	February 2022

01. Alluring Dusk
02. Regain
03. Primordial Summoning
04. Lucid
05. Polaris
06. Upon The Frozen Trail
07. Before The Last Wave
08. For What Purpose
09. Gently Sway
10. A Fool's Domain
11. Spiritual Collapse
12. Pitch Black
13. Turas Anam

If I had a pound for every Finnish-sounding melodeath band from Australia I’ve come across, I’d have two pounds: not a lot, but more than you’d expect from a country that’s more prone to being on fire than being covered in snow.

Hollow Decay is a one-man project from Brisbane brought to you by Dan Lovriha, who you may also know from Upon A Falling Empire. The project’s debut album The Frozen Trail slipped into the world with little initial fanfare, with Lovriha not publicly announcing the existence of either Hollow Decay or The Frozen Trail until the month of its release. However, we’re in a golden period for melodeath at the moment, as the strength of the category in this year’s Metal Storm Awards is testament to, and The Frozen Trail is solid enough to earn a spot on the hype train.

When you think of Australian melodeath, Be'lakor come instantly to mind for most genre aficionados. Although Be'lakor’s approach to melodeath is imbued with a similar melancholy to that heard in Insomnium and other Finnish bands, they have a greater emphasis on technicality, prog and just sheer force than is commonly heard in the Finnish scene. In contrast, Hollow Decay sound on a number of occasions as if it could have originated from those cold Northern lands, whether it’s the semi-frequent use of acoustic guitars (such as in the midsection of “Regain”), the use of Bodom-influenced keyboards or the folksiness of some of the guitar melodies.

At the same time, there’s quite a bit that distinguishes Hollow Decay from just being an identikit clone. There’s both a proggy slant and aggressive bite to the opening of “Regain” that adds some excitement, while “Polaris” kicks things off with a gnarly, disorienting opening riff. At the other end of the spectrum, the relentless tremolo-ing on “A Fool’s Domain” nicely nudges the song away from melodeath and towards meloblack territory. Probably the thing that caught my attention most often when listening to The Frozen Trail, however, was otherwise pleasant-yet-standard melodic hooks would become subtly twisted. It’s either a deliberate stylistic choice or slightly questionable execution of certain sequences (I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that it’s the former), but instances such as the Omnium Gatherum-esque lead midway through “Lucid”, the tremolo riffs of the title track and sections in “Spiritual Collapse” feel destined to go for the jugular before taking a less obvious and immediately satisfying direction.

To some degree, I have that slight feeling during most of The Frozen Trail. The record is put together very well, and it’s filled with strong moments that appeal to someone with a sweet tooth for melodeath such as myself, but there’s bits and pieces that pop up during a playthrough that slightly throw me off for a moment before I get back into the groove. Some of those moments come from the keyboards, which have a slight ‘Fisher Price’ cheesy tone to them that doesn’t always work when they move towards the top of the mix. Other times, it’s just a minor awkwardness in the progression of a hook.

However, on the whole, The Frozen Trail is a very enjoyable debut. It’s littered with solid lead guitar work, with plenty of emphatic solos and instrumental sections, and the progressive nature of the writing keeps the songs feeling fresh. There’s also just a lot of very solid melodeath moments thrown into the equation; tracks such as “Primordial Summoning”, “Gently Sway” and “A Fool’s Domain” caught my interest on first listen and retained it on replays. Whether it's up-tempo jagged riffing and banging drumming, mellow acoustic breaks or bombastic guitar melodies/group vocals, it’s typically pulled off well.

I don’t know how many frozen trails typically appear on the Gold Coast, but there’s now at least one that’s emerged from Queensland that’s worth your attention. Hollow Decay isn’t quite the finished article yet, but there’s already plenty to enjoy from the project on this first outing.