Brooklyn Boys Bring the Fire & Brimstone

The metal world is a strange and diverse place. With so many subgenres and new bands popping up every day, it becomes really hard to keep track of what is worth your time and what could have just as easily been left by the wayside. There is heavy, and then there is heavy. You can down-tune all you want, but there is a certain level of execution some bands possess that others fall short of. While it's becoming harder and harder to make that distinction, in the case of Brookyln's Hull, the only advice that can possibly be given is as follows: strap in and hold on tight.

These boys have crafted a true metal masterpiece in their newest opus Beyond the Lightless Sky, an album that hits hard right in the gut from the opening notes and relentlessly assaults the senses with big, nasty riffs and powerful, manic vocals throughout its 8 songs.

One cannot possibly overstate the guitar work on this album. This is some really, really stunning stuff. Hull's axemen intricately weave an intoxicating blanket of crushing riffs and soaring solos into a ridiculously seamless record. Each song, from galloping opener "Earth From Water" to closer "In Death, Truth," flows gently into its' successor without the slightest hiccup. This is not to say that all songs sound the same; the aforementioned opener is an absolute bruiser, but the interludes are dreamy and sweet. It's like someone took the cautious precision of Jesu and the maniacal fretwork of Mastodon's earlier work and ran it through a filter made of out of the bottom of Matt Pike's abandoned bag of Sleep riffs. The soothing-but-eerie tones of "Just A Trace of Early Dawn" would fit perfectly into the "Falling Asleep" playlist of anyone you know, but then the song segues into the title track; if there is a Lord Satan, this is what he listens to when he parties.

The album really hits its' stride after the second interlude, "Wake the Heavens, Reveal the Sun." The track that follows is the album's finest, "False Priest." This song really takes everything Hull does best and rolls it into one tasty, dirty burrito. The drums gallop along like horses on the path to Hell, the guitars buzz and swirl from stoney riff into lithe, melodic picking and back again, and the vocals sound like ancient monks on fire, chanting  and wailing an ominous soundtrack to imminent doom while a groovy bass line attempts to quell the flames.

When it's all said and done, it goes like this: If Black Sabbath had a bastard child with Thin Lizzy that was raised in a Scandinavian forest by Electric Wizard and Nachtmystium, and that baby grew up listening to Baroness and Zoroaster and started a band of its' own in New York City with the intent of raising the hounds of Hell to assassinate a major political figure, that band would be Hull. And that's the highest compliment I can give. Beyond the Lightless Sky is available now, and I suggest you turn on your laptop and acquire it via iTunes immediately.

Additionally, you can check out www.theclockonline.com for an hilarious interview with Hull drummer Jeff Stieber! Go! Look at it!