Hell Breaks Loose (album)

In mid-2013 Nicholson announced he had separated from wife of eight years, Kasey Chambers, with whom he shares son Arlon and daughter Poet, and had released two ARIA award winning albums. The normally prolific songwriter then entered a dry spell of almost a year. At the invitation of his friend and indigenous songwriter Warren H Williams, Nicholson travelled to the remote town of Hermannsburg, north-west of Alice Springs. Nicholson said "I had things on the boil during that time but I wasn't properly writing. It was a product of my environment though." Nicholson was producing albums for other people "I was just making record after record, back to back, for other people [and] after [a] 14-hour sessions in the studio you just don't come home and write songs." Nicholson said the vastness of the landscapes around Hermannsberg gave Nicholson the distance, both physical and figurative, to pick up his guitar to write. "What I got out there, there was this sense of perspective and being removed from my bubble." Nicholson said the distance is what he "needed", saying "it was the catalyst for the record coming to life."[7]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Music AU	[1]

Chris Familton from The Music AU discussed the songs personal reflection with traumatic experience, geographical locations and depression saying "Heavy subject matter abounds yet Nicholson applies a wonderfully light musical touch with plenty of acoustic guitar, piano and shuffling drums. Melodies dance and dive across the 13 songs whose folk and country hooks, with time, dig in deep."[1] Country Music Channel called the album "wonderful".[8]