‘A CALL TO THE VOID’ is a pleasant listen that doesn’t hit any real sonic lows throughout; Han Mee and Jim Shaw know what they are good at, and provide some genuinely fun tracks that are back with life, energy, and character.
With EPs released in 2019, 2021, and 2022, alongside a couple of singles in 2020, Hot Milk are a busy, busy band. Prolific song-writing along with extensive touring alongside some of the biggest names in modern rock has allowed them to cultivate a dedicated and passionate fanbase, and they have managed to keep those fans well fed with plenty of pop-punk bangers that are endlessly fun to listen to.
There has always been the question, however, of when the band would finally release their debut LP, and with ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ dropping last month, we finally got the answer. With their identity solidified as two songwriters and two session/live musicians, alongside settling on a sound that merges the heavier emo sounds in punk with catchy poppy melodies, ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ ends up feeling like the most ‘Hot Milk‘ sounding Hot Milk project yet… for better or for worse.
‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ is an album that sees Hot Milk perfecting their own formula. Hot Milk know how they want to sound, and they know what their fans want, leading to eleven tracks of well-written, well-performed, and well-produced pop-punk that will go down a treat for dedicated listeners of the band.
‘HORROR SHOW‘ featured fast paced, DnB styled percussion in the verses, which when accompanied by the gritty guitar riffs and restrained vocals, leaves the whole affair feeling a little Pendulum in nature. The. choruses are packed with incredibly catchy melodies, with a great little hook in the chorus with the ‘lobotomise my brain‘ bar ‘BLOODSTREAM‘, on the other hand, sees the band lean more into their pop side on this ode to destructive substance abuse; gorgeous yet simplistic instrumentation provides the backing to well harmonised melodies that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head.
‘PARTY ON MY DEATHBED‘ is a fantastically over-the-top emo pop banger, with a great blend of both the pop and heavy sides of the band. There’s a particularly fun second verse that sees some rapped vocals from Jim Shaw, which feels surprisingly natural for the band. ‘OVER YOUR DEAD BODY‘ is a huge pop-punk affair that continues with that blend of the band’s two main styles, alongside some killer bars (‘you think you walk on water but it’s piss all over your shoes‘) that are delivered with enough self-awareness to make the whole track great fun to listen to.
So, cool! Hot Milk nail their sound and produce an LP that fans will love. But… there’s an issue here. In perfecting their formula, Hot Milk end up creating an album that takes zero risks. If you have been following the band up until now, then you’ll have heard their evolution from the pop tones of their debut EP ‘Are You Feeling Alive?‘, to the raw existential angst of their sophomore EP, ‘I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD‘, seeing the band experiment and toy with their sound over the course of five years. However, on ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘, this just feels like a collection of tracks that are wholly expected from the band at this point, especially after last year’s EP, ‘The King and Queen of Gasoline‘.
‘MIGRAINE‘ features some nice heavy touches, but feels like it doesn’t push itself far enough with these ideas; Hot Milk have shown that they have the potential to write some phenomenal heavy tracks such as the single ‘I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD‘, so it just feels like ‘MIGRAINE‘ falls short of what they are capable of. ‘BREATHING UNDERWATER‘ starts off as a really pleasant slow-burner of a track, but the key change ends up cheapening the experience somewhat, making what could have been a potent emotional moment feel just a little too cheesy for its own good.
‘ALICE COOPER’S POOL HOUSE‘ is the most by the numbers track here, with the band attempting to pull on the humorously edgy side of their nature, but ultimately failing to execute it quite right, culminating in a track that is catchy, but tonally and lyrically too bizarre to function quite right. Fortunately, the closing track ‘FORGET ME NOT‘ does at least see the band pushing their boundaries, with a grand, sweeping closing statement that shows they possess real potential to write more than just gothic teen pop-punk.
For a debut effort, ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ is a pleasant listen that doesn’t hit any real sonic lows throughout; Han Mee and Jim Shaw know what they are good at, and provide some genuinely fun tracks that are back with life, energy, and character. At a brisk 33 minutes of runtime, ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ is at the very least an album that is worth giving a listen, but don’t go approaching this album expecting anything revolutionary; Hot Milk are good at what they do, but here’s hoping they try some new things on future material.
RATING: 74/100 – Good
For Fans Of: Waterparks, Holding Absence, Loveless, Fall Out Boy, The Home Team
Physical copies of the album are available here, including signed editions.
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