Hull-Sole Lord

The END
2009

My initial thought after hearing this one was that these guys could replace the "H" in their band name with a "D" and you would know where they are coming from. Then I realized that isn't totally fair although it does describe the end result. This Brooklyn five-piece engage in doom, post-doom, some death type vocals and loose progressive passages. In print this may sound like an ambitious undertaking. Unfortunately that is not the case. They dump out the pieces of this puzzle for all to hear, but unfortunately they just do not have the ideas on how to put them together. They tromp out some incredibly slow moving creations that fall in the doom category and they also roll out plenty of instrumental noodling. Now they show some hints of talent and rhythm during some of these bits, but they lack direction and they rarely flesh out any of their ideas. At best they sound like second rate Cult of Luna for a few moments or like YOB without the depth or sense of direction. At worst they sound flat and clueless. I kept hoping they would build on the few sparks they churned out, but instead of putting something together they just kept rolling along peeling out riffs that didn't gel. Somewhere below the surface I think that Hull generate some interesting tones, but just not enough of them and no real blueprint to go by.