Acala is a five-piece metalcore band from Covington, Louisiana. Formed in 2017 in a Buffalo Wild Wings booth, the band consists of brothers Jesse Clarke (guitars & vocals) and Caleb Clarke (Drums), both former members of Forever Forever, plus three former members of Ickus: Michael Labruzza (guitar & producer), Dennis Breland (vocals) and David Finn (bass). It all came about from Forever Forever and Ickus playing a show together and eventually decided to join forces dragging Jesse out of retirement which didn't take much convincing. The guys have been friends for many years prior to creating Acala, so they all know each other well and gel together as one unit to make music they all love.
After putting out two singles, Insomnia in July 2018 and Battle Within in March 2021, they have been hard at work putting together the Hollow Throne EP ready to be released on May 13th comprising of seven tracks which include the two mentioned.
We at TheSound228 had the opportunity to listen to the EP in full prior to release, Opening up with Oath sets the tone for the whole record. I feel that the way it has been structured with the song listing is great and can tell that the fellas put a lot of thought and effort into how they wanted it to play out.
1.Oath
2.Believer
3.Seraph
4.Hollow Throne
5.Battle Within
6.Goliath
7.Insomnia
Mixing some subtle and heavy riffs along with the clean and hard vocals gives Acala their own unique sound, adding in some heavy hitting percussion and bass to really fill out the depth. One of my personal favourites, Goliath, depicts this opening with a subtle riff and some hard vocals, building the track nicely to when it drops into the beefier riffs and hard hitting drums and bass. Each individual song on the EP has its own unique structure but all captivate Acala's signature style. Available May 13th on all streaming platforms such as Spotify and Youtube, Hollow Throne is definitely worth checking out.
Make sure you go and pre-save this debut EP by a very talented group of guys and check out their socials such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to keep up to date with what is happening.
Matt James