Album Details

• Artist: Hull
• Album: Sole Lord
• Label: The End
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2010-09-20

Down-tuned and down and dirty, Hull are a metal band that digs deep. If you really listen to "Soul Lord," you can hear traces of the blues and even early hard rockers like Link Wray in their methodical, grinding sound. But the band from Brooklyn does more than riff off of eclectic influences. Hull have ideas to spare, and they are all delivered at top volume, top intensity.

Their intensity is smoldering, rather that assaultive, however. Songs like "Innocence," "Transition" and "Wanderer" take time to build up to their full speed, but it is worth the wait. Hull's triple guitar format-featuring Nick Palmirotto, Drew Mack, and Carmine Laietta, weave a web of hard, funky stoner riffs, grooves full of color and force.

Harder-edged tunes like "Immortal" and "Healer" will pummel you in ways that stand with the best of the bands in this genre. These are take-no-bullshit ROCK songs, blues-based and oozing with sludgy goodness.

Hull will keep you busy on this debut full-length. "Sole Lord" is full of heavy vistas, its songs voyages into sometimes choppy, sometimes reflective, but always straight up satisfying places. It is the riffs that rule, but the melodies that really call the shots.

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