ELIAS HULK

Elias Hulk were an English hard-rock band who initially released one album in 1970 before going their separate ways. Members of the band continued in music over the years and recently have reunited with a new album planned for 2012. Their 1970 album called "Unchained" could perhaps be described as a cross between Cream and Sabbath with a dose of psych influence. Hard and sludgy rock with some trippy softer moments, not as overtly bluesy as Cream could be, and certainly less dark than Sabbath were, but with elements of both. The album starts off quite poorly I must say, with the first two tracks being repetitive, boring, and quite juvenile songwriting. Thankfully it gets better after that. "Been Around Too Long" has a strong Doors vibe to it, somewhat laid back, with delicate guitar work that is right out of the Robby Krieger playbook. Of course here we have real bass guitar, and it is wonderfully strong and up front in the mix. "Yesterday's Trip" is just thundering bass and drums riffing with guitar leads on top. "Anthology of Dreams" sort of combines the heavy blasting with somewhat lighter vocal verses, combining the two sides of the group. "Free" is quite the departure with light percussion behind nuanced dual guitar leads, one playing trippy chords with the other nicely soloing on slide, some good atmosphere here. "Delhi Blues" continues the most diverse part of the album with continued slide against an Eastern feel and a raga drumming style. I wish I could be more complimentary of Elias Hulk but in my opinion this is a fair album only for fans of period hard rock. It could also be recommended to people who love a huge and heavy bass presence that often commands the proceedings. The players are good but the compositions are nowhere near as interesting at the bands I mention above. I will bet that their new material is much more entertaining than this early work.

Elias Hulk is a very interesting heavy progressive band from United Kingdom. It is not a krautrock, and it should be in a Heavy Prog section (somewhere close to Fuzzy Duck or even T2 and High Tide) or in a Proto-Prog section (together with bands like Andromeda and Deep Purple). I can describe this album as a mix of: hard rock and blues, with psychedelic influences and with a great vocal. It is interesting that Peter Thorpe can sing very peacefully in some tracks and on the contrary in a very crazy way, with hoarse voice in others.

We Can Fly - is a heavy progressive, little bit bluesy track with a devilish vocal, heavy bass line, fine guitars and a long (about 1 minute) drum solo in the middle part.

Nightmare - a hard rock track with hoarse, little bit crazy vocal similar to Captain Beefheart

Been Around Too Long - is a peaceful track with fantastic bass line, and beautiful, delicate vocal. We also have here an interesting instrumental part with fine percussion and drums, together with beautiful guitar.

Yesterday's Trip - loud singing in the first minute, and than almost 3 minutes with great bass, strong drums and fantastic guitar. It is mostly an instrumental track.

Anthology of Dreams - is a psychedelic track with some hypnotic instrumental parts and beautiful delicate vocal.

Free - a peaceful track with weeping guitar (in some way similar to Dire Straits or Chris Rea) and delicate vocal

Delhi Blues - interesting instrumental, hypnotic mix of blues and oriental sounds (Raga Rock). Probably this track is the main reason of putting this album in the krautrock section (but I still don't agree with such a classification of this album).

Ain't Got You - it starts as a peaceful ballad and than we have more hard, instrumental part and again a peaceful ending with delicate vocal

I marked this album with 3 stars because I don't think that it is an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection but definitely it is a very good album (3,5 stars really).