Country: USAGenre: Post Metal, Stoner, Post Rock, Sludge.
Label: The End Records
Tracks: 10
Boasting a triple guitar lineup that makes for a monumental live presence, Brooklyn's HULL made serious waves (sorry) in the New York metal underground with their self-released, single-track, 17-minute EP Viking Funeral, a powerful pastiche of primal stoner/doom riffing/prog rock intricacy and space rock atmospherics that somehow, inexplicably, made its way into the Scarlett Johansson vehicle The Nanny Diaries. Go Figure. Now, more than two years later, they've signed to local imprint The End and reemerged with a startlingly assertive full-length that warrants the same amount of hype that Tombs have been on the receiving end of over the past six months.
Unlike Tombs' more direct, black metal-infused approach, HULL concentrate more on graceful ebbs and flows while slyly avoiding slipping into the more expansive, spacious, Isis-style jamming that many bands fall into. The pace on Sole Lord might be slow, but there's no idling whatsoever, the arrangements deliberate enough to hold us captivated throughout, whether it's o mellower fare like "Wanderer," the blues-drenched swagger of "Healer" or on the downright wistful, Zeppelin-esque "Vessel." Drummer Jeff Stieber anchors the arrangements, alternating between fluid to pulverizing, while the interplay between guitarists Nick Palmirotto, Drew Mack, and Carmine Laietta is at times extraordinary, as on the multifaceted epic "Architect," which occupies the sludgy space that Mastodon have since abandoned. However, their ace in the hole just might be their shared lead vocalists, making for a diversity in the vocal department that most bands could never hope to pull off. - Adrien Begrand
Hull on MySpace
Purchase
Hull - Sole Lord (2009)
Unlike Tombs' more direct, black metal-infused approach, HULL concentrate more on graceful ebbs and flows while slyly avoiding slipping into the more expansive, spacious, Isis-style jamming that many bands fall into. The pace on Sole Lord might be slow, but there's no idling whatsoever, the arrangements deliberate enough to hold us captivated throughout, whether it's o mellower fare like "Wanderer," the blues-drenched swagger of "Healer" or on the downright wistful, Zeppelin-esque "Vessel." Drummer Jeff Stieber anchors the arrangements, alternating between fluid to pulverizing, while the interplay between guitarists Nick Palmirotto, Drew Mack, and Carmine Laietta is at times extraordinary, as on the multifaceted epic "Architect," which occupies the sludgy space that Mastodon have since abandoned. However, their ace in the hole just might be their shared lead vocalists, making for a diversity in the vocal department that most bands could never hope to pull off. - Adrien Begrand
Hull on MySpace
Purchase
Hull - Sole Lord (2009)
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