Hull

I was not sure what to expect when I picked up a copy of the debut record,Sole Lord, by the band Hull. Well to be honest, what I found was a CD full of distortion, dissonance and discord that I honestly had a hard time listening to.

At times the disc is moderately tolerable and resembles something along the lines of stoner metal. More often than not though the tunes are overdriven and distorted-as-hell, making them, as far as I am concerned, unlistenable. A very good example of this can be found on the tune, “Wrath Of The Sands.” This tune, (if you can call it that), seems like an exercise in futility, I am really not even sure what the point of including this one on the disc was.

I have said it before (and will say it once again), I don’t feel there is any need to try and one up the next guy in an effort to be more extreme. At some point, I feel that the lines are crossed and music becomes nothing more than a bunch of noise. That is how I feel about this track in particular but also most of the disc. I am not sure what to say about something like this because it is hard to comment on its musical merit when there is not that much music to begin with.

The exceptions and what I feel give this album any merit at all are the three instrumental tracks (“Wanderer”, “Aesthetic” and “Vessel”); all of which are sort of experimental and jam-based and actually not terrible to listen to.

Bottom line, this disc was not my thing at all. I found it to be too extreme or perhaps too experimental for me. With so many other bands to listen to, Sole Lord is not a CD that I will be revisiting at all in the near future.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. Innocence
02. Transition
03. Immortal
04. Deliverance
05. Wrath Of The Sands
06. Wanderer
07. Healer
08. Aesthetic
09. Architect
10. Vessel

Run Time: 44:28