EXCLUSIVE SINGLE REVIEW: Drowning – “Hallowed” [2014]

Artist: Drowning

“Hallowed” – Single

Without warning, control, or a means to make it stop, it floods into your mouth, cascading down your throat and fills your lungs. It poisons your blood, corrupts your organs and decays your mind. It coats your skin like a film, but stabs into your flesh with the pointed, angular fury of a razor-sharp knife.  It is the uniquely heavy, picture-perfect display of dissonant, destructive aggression found in the latest single from Chicago’s finest in crushing hardcore—Drowning. “Hallowed” is a perfectly crafted song that includes every aspect of the band’s diverse array of influences—from metallic, catchy riffing to low-and-slow chug-laden mayhem, “Hallowed” is a track that appeals to fans of any kind of heavy music, even as it corrodes their insides and turns their flesh to dust with precise, punishing brutality.

“Hallowed” begins subtly—with a bouncy, almost jazzy drum line courtesy of Eddy Florez and a bouncy, slinking bass groove pouring forth from the frets of Ryan Kramarz. Before long, however, the hair-raising, flesh-tingling introduction to “Hallowed” gives way, letting loose with a full-blown flood of rampant aggression and nihilistic fury. Guitarist Michael Robinson leads the way with a series of catchy, skin-shredding riffs linked together by ultra-low chugs and bone-splintering breakdowns that make the listener feel as if they are being dragged through a bed of broken glass. On top of it all, Drowning bombards the listener with a dual-vocal onslaught—courtesy of Bryan Grantz and Brandon Tillet—which is nothing short of perfection. Grantz and Tillet toggle on and off with gruff shouts and guttural bellows that berate the listener with brooding, gloomy and pessimistic lyrics that erase any thought of hope from the listener’s mind. As “Hallowed” continues, Drowning only intensify their assault as carefully recited repetition and instrumentation builds from a basic foundation into a towering bastion of brutalizing, beatdown perfection. As the energy and hatred grows, overwhelming the listener, “Hallowed” refuses to let up—shredding the listeners flesh, forcing them to feel as if they were sinking in a sea of sharp objects, drowning by choking on rusty nails and crushed window panes. In a word, “Hallowed” is relentless—and only the first of many things to come from Drowning’s much anticipated early 2015 album, under Eulogy records, Hallowed.

For Fans Of: Desolated, Kingmaker, Oppressor, Triumph Over Shipwreck

By: Connor Welsh