As 2023 began to fade, US doom/stoner metal band The Holy Nothing arrived with a genuine force. Their debut EP, ‘Vol 1: A Profound and Nameless Fear’ brought plenty of heaviness, but the band often worked their riffs in a more inventive way than a lot of other doom-centric acts.

Even on the EP’s most predictable cut, ‘Unending Death’, their gift for delivering a weighty sound was more than clear.

A lengthy intro creates atmosphere with wind sounds and the kind of clean, gothy guitar you’d expect to find on ten thousand doom releases, before hitting the listener with a mid tempo riff that’s obviously inspired by a more typical doom metal sound. Not retro enough to be written off as Sabbath-esque, the sound is more of a Candlemass inspired metallic chug driven by a massive drum sound. To the band’s credit, this is something else they handle very well, and when it drops effortlessly into an echoing, gothic verse, followed by an ugly hardcore section, the track becomes a melting pot of noise that really works.

Although the EP features more interesting material, ‘Unending Death’, in many ways, provides a familiar entry point for first time listeners. This clearly hasn’t been lost on the band, and they’ve now issued the track as a digital single, with an accompanying video clip.

Check out the new video below. You can also read a full review of the EP and stream all five tracks here.