Introducing: Holy Hell

With a name like Holy Hell, it’s only fair for us to expect something dramatic, powerful and vicious. And the Canadian newcomers very much deliver on those expectations in an emo-meets-metalcore sound describing people’s reactions to an apocalyptic event, which they describe as “emotional, aggressive and epic.”

The Toronto quartet, formed of Tommy Dillon, Evan Scott, Brian Conway and Ro Agalawatte, have known each other and played shows together in the Toronto music scene for years before finally forming Holy Hell. And on the sound they’ve crafted, Tommy told us: “I’d say that Holy Hell can make you feel any number of things, from sad to hopefully and from angry to sad. It will have you singing along and thinking about how you would navigate through the darkest of times and come out the other side.”

Our latest taste of this is Holy Hell’s second single Stowaway, which was released in January. It starts with a bang with a powerful riff with harmonic stabs over driving chords and drums. The pace briefly drops with quiet vocals that explode over stabbing guitars and develop into big powerful chorus vocals “And I’ve been dying since the day I was born, And I can’t take it anymore.” The opening riff dives back in under vicious screamed vocals and slows down slightly at the start of another verse, which feeds back into the chorus vocals. It slows down with an answerphone message, before blasting into another big chorus setting up a powerful outro.

On the track, Tommy told us: “The response has been great. People can expect to get hit with punchy guitars, catchy choruses and raw energetic emotion.”

That follows on from the band’s huge debut single Planet Terror, which was released in December and features Connor Lovat-Fraser from Boys Night Out. It opens up with distant vocals and eerie electronic sounds, before a big cry of “Dead and gone” ushers in a delicious bending guitar riff. Engaging vocals take over in a lively opening verse supported by a cool guitar lick that feeds into a powerful chorus. The filthy bending guitar riff returns in one of the band’s customary “epic bridges,” and the pace drops with light vocals over pulsing electronic noises. It quickly careers into another big chorus, then a menacing riff supports clean vocals that explode into vicious screams setting up a final blast of the chorus before the delicious bending riff returns to bring it to a close. This is an absolute banger of a track and you can check it out in the stream below.

On releasing their first music, Tommy said: “It feels really good. It’s been a few years since any of us have worked on or released music. So it feels like it’s been a long time coming, and we are super proud of what we have put out and what’s to come.”

The Holy Hell sound draws heavily on influences from early 2000s metalcore, alternative metal and emo, with the band taking inspiration from a wide range of different genres and bands. And on what inspires them to write music, Tommy explains: “There is a common theme with this first batch of songs, it’s about love and loss at the end of the world. Every song is from a different person’s perspective during the same apocalyptic event.”

We’re very excited by the sound of Holy Helll; we love their intensity and their ability to seamlessly jump between mellow sections and intense metalcore goodness. And you can rest assured there’s much more to come from the band, who’ve just finished recording three more songs to complete their debut EP This House Is Not A Home. They’ll be releasing two more singles over the next couple of months with a view to the EP being out in full towards the end of the summer.

And Tommy added: “Our first two singles are setting the tone for what’s to come. Raw, emotional and heavy. We are very excited for everyone to hear the new songs when they drop. Holy Hell is just getting started. And the end of the world is coming.”

You can follow Holy Hell on Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.