Hollow Truth - The Earth Shook
This is a four song demo from Hollow Truth, self proclaimed Dublin crossover thrash hardcore. It's a sketchily produced, low budget affair, complete with a guest appearance from Julius Caesar. At least a quote from the dodgy guy who played him on TV at some point quite recently (I'm sure I saw it - lots and lots of nudity).
In essence, this is really a ten minute, three and a bit song offering, which shows promise for a sound that is retrospectively played; it is more a homage to the beatdown based CD collection of the members of the band than maybe a sound for the band themselves yet. But, it is always nice to hear a band happy to fly in the face of the kind of trends that see bands come and go in the blink of an eye. This is more NYHC than you generally hear right now. The problem with that is that there is very limited scope for producing too much that hasn't been done before by bands many times over.
He Who Shook The Earth, the second track on offer here, shows what the band are trying to do. I get the impression that on subsequent releases a slightly more individual tone might start to emerge, but as a demo track goes, this song shows a band with a desire to get back to roots hardcore. And if demos aren't a statement of intent, then I don't know what is.