Plain and simple, you like melancholic black metal with a nicely worked atmosphere? Then "The World Ends" is an album that you need to check out. OV HOLLOWNESS, from Canada, is releasing their third album; it is also the first that the one-man Black Metal band will release through Code666 Records.

In general the album is focused more towards the gloomier side of Black Metal, sounding really great in some instances like the beginning of "Hoarfrost" which has also a really nice atmosphere that Mark R. was able to craft in places. On the other hand you also get the typical Black Metal riffing, more melodic in some places for example in the opening track "Abstraction" and brilliantly delivered in "Hollow" and more dissonant in other moments like in "Grey", with a much more menacing and chaotic element to it.

There is not much experimentation with the Black Metal sound in this album, other than the inclusion of some clean vocal parts, quite impressive on the title track "The World Ends" and some influences from early KATATONIA albums, as well as some more from their rockier days ("Discouraged Ones"). Especially "End In View" definitely have something from the Swede legendary band earlier days.

My only issue with the album was its length. Personally I thought that some of the songs did not need to be that long, and if they were a bit shorter they would keep my interest for longer, still that is a personal opinion and for someone else might not be an issue.

Still "The World Ends" is a good album, OV HOLLOWNESS is a band that you should not miss out on if you are into Black Metal in general and especially if you prefer bands that are balancing quite nicely between the atmospheric and raw side of the genre and offer both melodic and dissonant parts.