REVIEWS

These songs could easily have been written 15 years ago, yet they sound fresh to ears innundated with EBM and Electronica. While there's a definite strong influence from "old school" bands like The Mission UK, The Drowning Season have their own groove, and it is excellently catchy. This Baltimore based foursome is bringing back the Old School UK guitar-driven Goth Rock sound!
Favourite Tracks: Six Feet Under, Hollow, Violet Sky
File Under: Pointy Boots & Dark Sunglasses
RIYL: Rosetta Stone, Rose Of Avalanche, The Mission UK

http://www.disrupted.org/~hotr/reviews/reviews.htm

"Hollow" is the first full length album from this American four-piece. They have earlier released a four-track EP called "Six Hollow Perfect Things", and all those tracks are also presented on this disc. I guess the only way to describe their music is to label them as gothic rock, much in the vein of The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of Nephilim. These influences are pretty obvious right from the beginning in the opening track "Hollow". It is a very Sisters sounding song, from, I would say, the "Floodland" period. Fortunately though, the singer, Matt Slowikowski, doesn't go all the way to try to sing like Eldritch. If he had, this would be too much of a rip-off, but as it happens, this is actually a great track with an excellent chorus. The guitars remind me very much of The Cure, and that is not bad at all.

"MICK MERCER"

~~The debut full-length release from Baltimore's The Drowning Season offers a gratifying assortment of guitar oriented goth-rock tracks. The CD cuts to the quick with two songs in the vein of Sisters of Mercy, the title track "Hollow" and "Violet Sky." The tempo slows down with the brooding and pulsating "Ashes," but the pace picks back up and the album leans toward the heavier side with "Godspeed" and "Gun." The CD finishes off strongly with the reverent rocker "Grace." Hollow is filled with dark delights

Dark Realms -- reviewed by Devon King

"Guitar driven goth rock for those who miss the Rock in Goth, offering a few driving tracks for smoky dancefloors. The title track is unfortunately one of the weaker songs of the album. Highlights would have to be the Fields - influenced Violet Sky, the catchy Godspeed echoing early Mission sounds, and the synth hooks of the closing track Grace.

-- Said Sukkarieh, musicfolio.com, 8/02

Well well well, and I thought Leeds was in England. This is a band from Baltimore, Maryland (USA) whose press release reads like a list of favourites of mine from my youth. They list The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, Fields of the Nephilim and most surprisingly, The March Violets as influences. They have been compared to Children on Stun and Love Like Blood and while the comparisons are way off, you can hear most of the influences shining.
The vocals? Generally they sound like Wayne Hussey. The music? There you can hear the guitar stylings of that legend of legends Gary Marx crossed with the pounding beat of the good doktor. The bass? It's all Craig Adams. Another influence they ought to have listed would be James Ray and the Performance as even the typesetting they've chosen has adorned many a James Ray single and album cover. I forgot to mention, the other half of the guitar spectrum does indeed have the searing riffs which The Violets used to great effect during their short-lived career. I don't hear any Nephilim influence, the guitarists are not that technical.
Yes, The Drowning Season are completely unoriginal at this point and if you take a cue from history, you'll also know that at one point The Sisters were also dismissed as hacks whose only claim to fame was taking the piss out of everything and shamelessly wallowing in their influences. If this is indeed the route that The Drowning Season are taking then all the best to them. What better way to find yourself as band I ask. And no, these guys don't "rock". They take time to exude some interest in the song structure. Shocker.
I would not recommend this album to anyone who is not in it for the long haul as this band have more than a mountain to climb. Take a look at their press photo and it looks right out of the provinces of England in say 1983 or 1984. Maryland, you say? Who knew?

PETER MARKS

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