I have entered a stage in life where every album I take a keen interest in doubles as a personality test. Case in point: I’ve recently discovered I don’t enjoy being teased. I’m just not here for the sneak peeks anymore. Give me straight up tormenting unpredictability any day instead of this slow burn indecisiveness. Serve me a plot twist. French band’s HØLLS debut ILL seems to also be about finding out an identity, and they clearly have all the raw materials handy.
Opening an album with a nine minute statement track feels bold, and thus I find myself attaching a certain expectation to “Last Deep Breath”, further reinforced by the album coming with the post hardcore / post metal tags. And post it is — with screams that hark back to Julie Christmas, this first proper track has that kind of post rock patience, teasing build ups that tickle my spine. And yet here’s the thing: I did not need a deep breath at the 5:55 mark, I needed my sternum to be trampled by sonic apocalypse. I badly required this to go into post-hxc territory, into full throttle chaos instead of deceleration. For me this taunt did not land, and it felt more like an unfinished thought than a deliberate insurrection. Their other mini epic, “Upsetters”, delivers more in terms of mood, complete with a male-female vocal interplay towards the end which is both an unexpected delight, and the moment I wondered whether we’re just circling the Cult of Luna altar. Worship is fine, but ILL sometimes feels like it’s keeping its fretful eyes on the big kids in the post playground instead of carving its own niche.
HØLLS do deliver moments of beauty. “Endless Night” sneaks in some intricate guitar lines that caught my attention like a sudden flash of lightning on a dark night. It’s clear that these Bisontins have the chops to experiment, yet they lack the fearless conviction to go beyond being competent to take some risks. And here lies my core frustration. ILL is a mix of genres that live or die on their ability to maintain tension and either release it into an explosive crescendo or twist it into something you didn’t hear coming. HØLLS have the tools to traverse the unexpected, yet they do not deliver the knockout punch, instead bouncing back to familiar motifs. When a song pushes past the 6 minute mark, I want every second to feel seismic, else it drops into the ‘background music for rearranging the sock drawer’ category. We finally get a glimpse of what HØLLS might become if they start pushing boundaries with “Sick”, where they lean a bit more into their post hardcore sound, even if eventually they do pump the breaks yet again. The band know how to creating interesting textures, however they just haven’t fully figured out how to build them into a peak that sticks with you when the album ends. For now, ILL is a solid introduction to a band still finding their voice. It shows a lot of promise, but next time, I hope HØLLS aren’t afraid to go harder, wilder, weirder.
