Stoner Rockers Portland's BELONGING Announce The Vinyl Re-Release Of Their Debut Album HOLLOW CELLS

Following up the release of their debut LP, Portland-based post-hardcore trio from the Upper Midwest channels grunge, doom, and psychedelic rock into a haunting re-release via Dipterid Records.

What began in isolation has returned with force. Belonging, a genre-defiant trio with roots in North Dakota and Minnesota, is reissuing their debut album ‘Hollow Cells’ through Portland-based imprint Dipterid Records. Originally self-released, the album is now being offered a proper platform to a hidden gem waiting to be unearthed by a broader audience attuned to its raw emotional depth.

The band—Bryce August (guitar/vocals), Jeremy Hansen (bass), and Shane Heilman (drums)—formed out of the tight-knit DIY scenes of the Upper Midwest, later converging with the heavier and more experimental currents of the Pacific Northwest. The result is a massive, emotionally complex sound, blending the raw urgency of punk and screamo with the heavy, hypnotic energy of sludge, psych, and grunge.

“Hollow Cells was the culmination of a lot of different influences,” says guitarist and vocalist Bryce August. “We wrote and recorded a lot of these songs during the Covid quarantine — so there's a sense of alienation, isolation, creeping dread… and a desire to cut silence with noise.”

The record’s thick atmosphere of disquiet is met with a visceral, melodic pushback. Fuzzed-out guitars groan and bloom. Basslines writhe under crashing drums. Each track captures the tension of breaking free — of finding belonging in dissonance.

The band draws on the Midwest’s punk/hardcore pedigree as much as the doom-laden legacy of Pacific Northwest icons. “Initially we fused my punk and screamo roots with Jeremy's experience in Portland noise rock bands and Shane’s post-metal drumming,” Bryce continues. “As we refined the songs, we took a lot of influence from PNW bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Melvins, alongside the more psychedelic elements of bands like Lungfish and Black Angels.” That background of evolving influences carries weight, not just in tone, but in atmosphere—textured, heavy, and deeply rooted in emotional contrast. As Bryce concludes, “All of that together surfaces as the heavy, hypnotic energy of stoner/doom that flavors our particular take on post-hardcore.”

The reissue comes courtesy of Dipterid Records, a label devoted to underground sonic oddities. Founder Kevin Curty recalls: “I discovered Belonging through a mutual friend of Jeremy's. When I heard ‘Hollow Cells’ I was honestly shocked it hadn’t already been picked up. It was love at first listen.”‘Hollow Cells’ from Belonging is coming out on via Dipterid Records. 

Pre-order here.

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