After 2019's well-received Endless Trails demo via SIGNAL REX, HOLLOW WOODS strike with a full-length debut fittingly titled Cold Winds Cleave the Earth. While hailing from Finland, this mysterious entity largely eschew their homeland's reigning black metal idiom, instead taking influence from Ukraine (Roman Saenko's projects), Norway (early Ulver, equally early Gorgoroth), and especially Russia (the Blazebirth Hall collective). In other words, pure & proud BLACK METAL, nevertheless done with personality and charisma. Cold Winds Cleave the Earth boldly and brazenly displays HOLLOW WOODS' full potential across its six-song/39-minute duration. Epic but never belabored, physical but finessed, straightforward but never simplistic: no gimmicks, just hateful black metal. HOLLOW WOODS are always working within the framework of devotion to the primal world and nature mysticism; both can be felt, subtly but assured, across the entirety of Cold Winds Cleave the Earth. The artwork and inspiration for the album's theme stems from Finnish linguist and ethnographer Kai Donner (1888-1935), taken during his expeditions to Siberia. So pure, so cold, so boundless within its boundaries: HOLLOW WOODS present a new grim majesty with Cold Winds Cleave the Earth.
