Weird. This is a two-man band broken down to a "stander" and a "sitter", where the "stander" handles eight-string bass, keyboards with his feet, and vocals, and the "sitter" obviously plays drums, but also midi triggers, keyboard with his left foot and sometimes hands, and does some vocals. This demo combines two new tracks with the four-song "Demo 2002", and the music isn't quite as crazy as the stander/sitter combo might suggest. The drumming is pretty straightforward, the basslines are tangible and cover everything from hardcore/punk runs to drawn out progressive rock passages complete with lots of effects and all that, etc. "New Song" is over 16 minutes and has a lot of changes that all sort of revolve around moderately paced to slow rhythms that exemplify some of the most obvious 70's rock influences with both the bass and keyboards. Honestly, I'm not into the keyboards. Sometimes they add to the band's sound, and sure they thicken things up and whatnot, but... I don't know. I'm just not into the keyboards. The samples and stuff tend to be well used, it's just the keys that aren't always necessary or complimentary in my opinion. "Big Boned" is stripped down, sludgy and doomy and definitely has a heavy, thick vibe happening, as well as some sick vocal screams that are layered and panned with subtle effects that really sound insane. "Funeral Plan" is slightly faster and has more of a really heavy stoner rock thing going on, and since it's only distorted bass it sounds fucking awesome. And then there's "Use Your Aleutian", which is a mix of all that stuff, though perhaps slightly more droning and experimental on some level. The recordings are pretty good for demos. There's a good level of density without getting too muddy or dirty, the mixes are alright, etc. Some songs sound better than others, but I can live with it. The CD-R comes in a simple sleeve (color xerox) with Hulk-ish artwork wrapped in another xerox with a woman holding hands with a bear on it. Inside is a small xeroxed booklet with more Hulk artwork from old comics and some text/lyrics and stuff. I'll give them credit for actually having a good sense of humor that I find to be pretty entertaining. I actually like the "Demo 2002" songs better than the new songs, but it's hard to gauge where the band is actually heading. Very curious...
[self-released]
Running time - 35:19, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Big Boned, Funeral Plan]
Hulk Smash - http://www.hulksmash.org
