You can't throw a crumpled-up beer can in Brooklyn without striking at least one or two would-be rockstars, but thankfully, the late-2000s hype train has chugged the hell away from city's metal scene and its denizens have been left to create in (relative) peace. The latest cadre of noise obsessives to gel together features members of noted locals Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path, Mountain God, Alkahest and Archon—but despite the share doom metal values that span their other projects, Hollow Senses is far from derivative. Rather, the band's tight hold on tension and penchant for creepy, whispery vocals and echoing chords sees them tread into weirder, ambient-adjacent territory. Instead of reaching for a hammer, Hollow Senses secrets a garotte.Instead, guitarist, bassist, and noise manipulator Nikhil Kamineni explains, "Musically, I think we were originally just trying to do more of a straight drone/noise record but with drums. However, the material sort of took on a life of their own as we worked on them sporadically over a period of two years. After we recorded the main drums and guitar tracks we realized that they were begging for some vocals, which was when I reached out to Ryan to do the main vocals. I used to play in Archon with Rachel and thought she had the perfect voice to compliment Ryan's and she was cool enough to do vocals without having any idea of what they would end up being (I didn't either at the time we recorded them, I just knew I wanted it to be more of a sound design element than a musical one).All of the themes rest on the unvarnished view that our current form of civilization is a nightmarish technological dystopia, despite the fact that there is still a wide range of human experience within this setting. It attempts to seamlessly weave together ideas of urban isolation, history, politics, corruption, propaganda and critical theory. I wanted to portray these ideas in a grittier and abrasive setting, which I think they are all deserve."Put down your reading glasses and submit to Encirclement below.
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