Style: Progressive metal, djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Karnivool, Tesseract, Ions
Country: Netherlands
Release date: 2 February 2025
Here at The Progressive Subway, we find music in all sorts of ways. Plenty of bands email us promos for review, but others we find languishing in corners of the internet untrodden by most. And sometimes Sam is practicing with his theater group and hears a proggy band recording in the adjacent studio. Yes, our Dutch founder was out with his vegan mime troupe when he first heard the skronky riffs of a 7-string next door that drew him to go talk to the boys from Hologram Earth. Naturally, he urged them to send us a promo, which Thomas duly did; I wonder if his bandmate Stephen told him, “Oh wait, I totally emailed that website last week,” because he had—and I’d already picked the promo up to review. See, I could’ve mythologised the encounter, but I chose to give you the unvarnished truth instead. That’s the Subway guarantee: absolutely no fun allowed.
Hologram Earth’s style cycles through a variety of influences: heavier djent riffs and post-metal crescendos come to the fore often, but the foundational complexity pulls more from the tradition of Karnivool. There are Tesseractian atmospheres aplenty, but when the band veer into more virtuosic territory, Haken and Between the Buried and Me are brought to mind. While these comparisons are apt at times, the overall work is hard to compare; City of Gold offers some unique ideas, as well as some unique flaws.
Indeed, City of Gold is gilded less with the old prospector’s folly than it is with brass. Bassist Thomas Cochrane also provides trumpet work which adorns most tracks, whether it’s the lamenting horns at the outro of “Solum”, the gorgeous swells in the contemplative interlude of “Clouds”, or the utterly rhapsodic work on “Home”, his blowing proves a bold unique selling point and goes a long way to defining Hologram Earth against other bands. Meanwhile, the bass has a vital sense of attack and the guitar work of Heijs and Hulshof frequently delivers outstanding moments; however, Luuk van der Velden’s drumming may well be the album’s best performance—pounding his way across the kit, working his way through skronky polyrhythms, and yet able to turn on the subtlety during softer sections.
As should be clear, there are a lot of elements in play, and what impresses most is the degree to which Hologram Earth manage to make a style that draws on so many disparate sounds feel contiguous. A single track might sojourn through post-metal languorousness, thundering djent, a horn section, masturbatory soloing, and much more, as well as about three different vocal styles, and still feel logical in its progression. Such versatility yields many a standout moment: the blast-beat laden climax of “Clouds”, the bass solo on the unexpectedly punky “Wither” or the extended Pink Floyd-esque solo on “Home”. Should ‘punky’, ‘blast-beat’ and ‘Pink Floyd’ be terms used in the same review? Who knows, but here they are, and they’re—somehow—not contradictory.
However, Hologram Earth aren’t beyond fault, and their most significant is, unfortunately, vocalist Michiel Meurs. Despite a strong baritone, his output can be rather variable both in pitch and in quality. His cleans belt out strongly but more than a little warbling and can seem a little disconnected in the mix—a dash of Melodyne would do him the world of good; his stoner metal shouts, meanwhile, sit awkwardly over the more contemplative prog tones on offer. And yet, some moments really work, particularly the breathiness of the delivery he uses at around 1:20 in “Clouds”, and the raw emotion captured in the belting finale of “Home”. Meurs isn’t always helped by the production, another facet handled by Cochrane. He has a good ear for his own contributions—the bass lovingly clear and the trumpet sleek in the mix—but his talent doesn’t quite extend to sanding down the harsher edges: the hiss of cymbal hits and the rather dry tone of the guitars. Hologram Earth’s compositions have an inherent sense of drama but the production doesn’t provide the requisite sense of cinema to do them justice.
City of Gold closes with their best work, “Home”, an eleven minute epic which runs through Car Bomb-like djent, an extended Gilmourian guitar solo, and a rapturous horn section. It’s testament to Hologram Earth’s infectious moxie that one can identify issues with their work and still be wowed. There are, after all, such things as good problems to have; things to work on, goals to aim for, continual improvement and renewal. Better yet, the virtues they demonstrate on this debut show that they absolutely have what it takes to overcome these fairly minor problems. El Dorado beckons.
Recommended tracks: Solum, Clouds, Home
You may also like: Sermon, Inhalo, Sentryturn
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Instagram | YouTube
Label: Independent
Hologram Earth is:
– Michiel Meurs (vocals)
– Luuk van der Velden (drums)
– Bram Heijs (guitar)
– Steven Hulshof (guitar)
– Thomas Cochrane (bass, trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn)
