Hollow Ground - Warlord [LP]

Reissue 2024, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert, ltd 350, Remastered and restored by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in 2012. With just four compilation tracks and one 7" EP issued in the early 1980s, Hollow Ground did have a rather low profile at the time of the original New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. However, their first and only single »Flying High« (issued on the collectable Guardian Records label) became an instant collector's item. Today copies with the scarce picture sleeve fetch rather insane prices. Before the release of the single Hollow Ground had recorded the four songs 'Rock On', 'Fight With The Devil', 'Flying High' and 'The Holy One' for the Guardian compilation album entitled »Roksnax«. Hollow Ground carried on to record more material (such as 'Promised Land', 'Easy Action', 'Rock To Love' and 'Loser') but an album deal was not on the cards. As a result singer Glenn Coates left to join local rivals Fist. As a result, Hollow Ground split up in mid-1981. In comparism to some of the more conservative-sounding New Wave Of British Heavy Metal acts at the time (for example Fist), Hollow Ground did show a lot of promise. Guitarist Martin Metcalf knows why: "I think we had a wider range of influences as opposed to just heavy bands, we took things from all over the rock spectrum. We were like sponges soaking everything up, from the funk of Aerosmith, the hard-rock of Montrose to the proginess of Rush." The song 'Fight With The Devil' was chosen by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich for his »N.W.O.B.H.M. '79 Revisited« compilation released in 1990. Hollow Ground have recently played two re-union gigs: 2007 at Headbangers Open Air in Northern Germany and in late February 2014 at Newcastle's own Brofest. Glenn Coates (vocals), Martin Metcalf (guitar), Brian Rickman (bass) and John Lockney (drums)