What’s this? A hefty, experimental metal band from France on Prosthetic Records? Is it the new Gojira? Nope, but close. Originally released on Dental Records in 2007, it appears Prosthetic Records has snapped up this Alsace band’s debut in order to whet everyone’s appetite for the upcoming The Way of All Flesh, and good thing too because the upcoming Gojira release will more than likely steamroll anything in its path, including these fellow Frenchmen who sound a lot like Gojira.

Gojira comparisons aside with their heaving, angular take on modern metal, Hollow Corp also have a small injection of Isis/Neurosis styled post rock in their veins with a few moments of experimentation ambience and droning amid the more direct, jagged, lurching riffs contained in tracks like “Elevation”, “Code”, “Sabbat” and “Samen”, However, it’s the more developed, building tracks like standout “Peripherals”, “Inferno”, “Opium” and “Thujon” that manage to mix the two styles with a pleasing, if hardly unique tone and heft that make for the albums better moments. Vocalist Stephane Azam has a standard pained filled roar and scream and the production is stout yet crisp, but not as suffocatingly heavy as their aforementioned county mates. The result is a solid album that you would think would have more of an impact than it does with me.

The thing is, while that mix sounds appealing, and at times I’ll again, admit this record is pretty good, it’s never great despite moments of overwhelming density. Cloister of Radiance both stylistically and quality wise, is a lot like the recent release, Apnea, by Denmark’s The Psyke Project; a solid release that I enjoy while its playing, but not an album I’ll come back to for sheer listening pleasure.

[Visit the band's website]

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