Despite the mountain-dwelling name, All Hail The Yeti formed in LA, back in 2006. Since then, the band have taken their time, releasing three studio albums to date (the last being 2018’s Highway Crosses) and now returning with seven-track EP Within The Hollow Earth. Drawing influence from the alternative scene of the mid-90s (specifically Alice in Chains and Helmet) as well as more metallic acts such as Pantera and Life of Agony, All hail The Yeti certainly know how to groove, as they ably demonstrate over the course of this short EP. Well-produced and performed, Within The Hollow Earth certainly has its charms, although (as we shall see) it falls down a touch due to an over-reliance on a single structure.
From the moment that Bury Your Memory detonates from the speakers, you know that Within The Hollow Earth is going to pack a visceral punch. There’s a rawness to the performance, especially from vocalist Connor Garrity, that stands at odds with so much of modern metal, and yet there’s also melody amidst the might, recalling the brutal groove of 90s bands like Helmet, not to mention the reinforced riffing of Pantera. It’s a hell of a start and it is followed by the equally bruising Headless Valley, an intriguing insight into what Alice In Chains would sound like if covering early Life Of Agony. That said, despite the clear influences on display, All Hail The Yeti do a fine job of making them their own, and there’s a ferocity to the delivery that is undeniable.
Having started on a strong note, All Hail The Yeti continue the EP in very much the same vein. Like Stone Sour, All Hail The Yeti know the value of a good surging riff, and the stabbing drama of Funeral Heart is custom made to get the mosh-pit moving. A high-octane belter with a melodic chorus, it runs along familiar lines and, while the band deliver it with panache, its somewhere between this track and its follow up, Nidavelir, that a certain amount of ennui develops on the part of the listener. Fortunately, while Cold Dead Leaves maintains the aggro-verse / melodic chorus formula, the band shake up the delivery, opting for a sound more akin to latter day Sabbath, and the elastic riff that powers the track certainly gets the head nodding. That Pantera vibe returns on Cry Of The Waheela, a hulking great beast of a track that sees Dave Vanderlinde’s stair-stepping riffs and Ryan Kittlitz’s pummelling percussion engaged in the service of banging heads everywhere, before The Great Dying brings things to a neat conclusion, maintaining the pace, but again focusing on the same heavy-verse / clean chorus dynamic found across the album.
In many ways an impressive EP, Within The Hollow Earth has much to offer, but it’s not without its flaws. While each of the tracks, taken individually, draw neatly on their influences; taken as a whole, the formula starts to wear a little thin. When you consider that even the heaviest of the band’s influences, for example Pantera, introduced light and shade into their releases via acoustic tracks or straight-forward assaults, the more one-dimensional approach taken here threatens to undermine the impact of the later tracks because they’re simply too similar to that which has gone before. Over the course of an EP, this is largely forgivable, but it would certainly be good to see more variation in a future full-length. As such, Within The Hollow Earth offers much promise, but a more varied approach is needed if the band is to deliver a classic album in the vein of their influences. 7/10
