#earl of hell

Pachyderm Shuffle [Weekly Mixtape 198]

Earl Of Hell | Black Sabbitch | Fuzzriders | Wolftooth | Bone Church | Insomniac | Stoned Jesus | Demons My Friends | Elepharmers | Litania | Lord Elephant | The Apulian Blues Foundation

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Music On This Mixtape:

Earl Of Hell: "Macabra Cadabra" taken from the album "Earl Of Hell"

Black Sabbitch: "A National Acrobat" taken from the album "Unrest In The West"

Fuzzriders: "Old Man" taken from the album "I Like It"

Wolftooth: "War Brigade" taken from the album "Wizard's Light"

Bone Church: "Bone Boys Ride Out" taken from the album "Deliverance"

Insomniac: "Sea" taken from the album "Om Moksha Ritam"

Stoned Jesus: "Shadowland" taken from the album "Songs To Sun"

Demons My Friends: "Ghosts of You" taken from the album "Demons Seems To Gather"

Elepharmers: "Drifter" taken from the album "Western Wilderness"

Litania: "Bound" taken from the album "Litania"

Lord Elephant: "Black River Blues" taken from the album "Ultra Soul"

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

EARL OF HELL is good medicine. The Scottish band combines the vivacity of rock 'n' roll rhythm with chuggy guitar ferocity for one the most enthralling acts we've heard in quite some time.

We brought you Earl of Hell back during the pandemic, with the music video premiere of "Hang 'em High" from their first outing 'Get Smoked' (2022), which I lauded for its "fat riffs, dramatic flourishes, and some damned impressed pyrotechnics."

Now comes the band's first proper full-length, with 9 tracks 36 minutes of pure heavy bliss. For this jaunt, they worked with producer Alain Johannes who scene hounds will recognize from Queens of The Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, The Desert Sessions, and his own band Eleven (Earl of Hell did a stormy cover of "Nature Wants To Kill Me" on stage with Alain last summer). He no doubt suggested a few compelling touches here and there that take many a song over the top.

'Earl of Hell' (2025) begins, intriguingly, with a short homage to The Louvin Brothers ballad, "Satan is Real." Its backwoods and folksiness, the swirl of evening insects, and gnarled fuzz makes it a bit unnerving, like we're stumbling into a world where things can get strange and dangerous.

Perhaps a fitting intro, once we hear those damning smashes that tear off the lid off tour de force "The Infernal Dream." The guitar riff is a stoner metal lover's dream: dire and badass. The blended vocal harmonies on the verses that follow are soothing to the ears. They transport me to a blissful state, like being strapped in safely to a rumbling jet that's about to touch off. You feel the growling intensity of the drum, bass, and guitar attack, but feel somehow carried atop it all by the singing.

"Impaler" is a rip roaring bar stormer. One can imagine a devilish hoe down in some God forsaken barn lit about by Jack o' Lanterns. "Brave New Age" feels like it's in a guitar driven mania, but the vocals somehow make us less afraid to take a ride on the huffing, puffing rodeo bull. There are some really chill vocal harmonies here that really stick around in my mind and have me revisiting this song just to get my fix of that "Yeah, yeah, yeah" harmonic progression about a minute in.

Impressive on each song is the power of those downtuned instruments, as in those first fistful of notes on "Calling, Is The Crow" -- especially when they crash emphatically together. It really hits something deep inside the chest, and I can imagine the low-end would rearrange your internal organs live. A flighty guitar riff shows up 50 seconds in and returns before the final chorus, hovering overhead in the upper register like a crow, singing its short little sad song into the atmosphere.

"My Twisted Mind" opens like a Kaiju pulling spitting high tension wires down, wading through the buildings toward the center of town. It's one of those songs that seems larger than life (especially listening with a good headset on).

"Macabre Cadabra" would make a great companion following Helmet's "Exactly What You Wanted," as both have that real nice headbanging groove. The twin guitar action throughout the album has been outstanding and having Dan Mitchell and Lewis Inglis playing either in sync and each doing their own thing (e.g. driving rhythm vs. obsessive spacey shredding) is one of the great spectacles for the ear. The song ends strong and defiant like a heartbeat.

There are simply no fillers on this record. The tracks seem to just keep besting themselves as the B-side spins along. Just when I think Earl of Hell is going to opt for something ordinary and well-trod, they come back to surprise me. "Waiting to Die" brings in more great harmonic vocal touches from lead vocalist Eric Brock and guitarist Lewis Inglis. The drumming of Ryan Wilson and bass work of Dean Gordon shows not an ounce of fear, but absolute resolution without even a hint of stiffness. The chorus, as with so many others on the record, is a big part of my affection for this bittersweet number.

"Bloodlines" is the longest song so far, with most averaging around 4 minutes. This one goes for an epic storytelling riff that builds with more and more conviction as it is repeated, with the first verse arriving toward minute two and then a bittersweet chorus about how we gotta go, gotta know, and accept things that just gotta be. The band brings all its energy to bear around the four minute mark with chugging momentum and sawing riffage, then a shift to reassuring chords and a solo that swims as freely as a salmon upstream. The vocals get more punky before a return to the opening motif and the foot stomping dirge that closes this romping adventure of an album.

Earl of Hell's self-titled full-length debut emerges from the depths on April 25th (get it here). I assure you, this one's gonna get stuck in your craw. Mix it on a playlist with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Håndgemeng, The Watchers, Helmet, and a dash of Nirvana's faster songs.

Give ear...

SOME BUZZ

Earl Of Hell was born in 2020, just prior to the COVID pandemic which forced the UK into lockdown. They spent the first few months sharing ideas remotely and began rehearsing once restrictions finally eased. With music venues closed, the band spent a year honing their set and wouldn't play their first gig until August 2021 to an allseated audience. This was shortly followed by a sold-out first hometown show in Edinburgh’s legendary Sneaky Pete's.

The band released a succession of singles, ‘Blood Disco’ and ‘Arrhythmia,' while continuing to play around Scotland and Northern England. They finally hit the studio again in 2022 to record and release their debut EP ‘Get Smoked’ on USA label Slightly Fuzzed Records, receiving many positive reviews within the Stoner/Doom community. This was followed by a more extensive run of shows which included their first visit to London and opening for Bongzilla and Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons.

Over the Summer of 2022, Earl Of Hell looked to expand their sound by recruiting a second guitarist and quickly found one in Dan Mitchell. The band dynamic was enhanced as they immediately began writing and performing live as a five piece, opening for touring acts such as Lightning Bolt, Gnome and The Vintage Caravan.

2023 would prove to be the most successful year yet for Earl Of Hell, playing in excess of 30 shows, including a slot at the coveted Desertfest London, a summer tour with Iceland’s Volcanova and opening for bands such as Sasquatch and Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator. On Halloween, they released their fourth single, ‘Impaler,' rounding the year off with headline weekenders in London, the Midlands, and the North of Scotland.

2024 saw Earl Of Hell complete a successful tour with Chilean born multi instrumentalist and producer Alain Johannes, performing as tour support and Alain's own backing band.

Continuing to tour the UK through 2024, the band are currently in the studio working on a follow up to 2022's "Get Smoked" EP. This will be Earl Of Hell's first full length record, which will be co-produced with Alain Johannes and the first recorded music since Dan Mitchell joined the band as second guitarist.

With the album scheduled for release in the spring of 2025, the band also have tours with Brant Bjork, Masters Of Reality and another tour with Alain Johannes.

Earl of Hell by Earl Of Hell

Earl of Hell's self-titled debut bestows a juggernaut of raucous rock'n'roll delivered with relentless punk energy and brimming with enough fuzz to make your walls tremble. Mixed and mastered by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Desert Sessions, Mark Lanegan), it displays thoughtful yet unapologetically gritty songwriting.

Embodying the spirit of bands like Alice In Chains, Killing Joke and Black Sabbath, this album pays homage to its stoner rock roots while exploring historical and futuristic concepts from Edinburgh’s infamous grave robbers to Planet Earth’s impending doom.

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Earl Of Hell

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✌️ NEW REVIEW ✌️ Just dropped a review for the new Earl of Hell EP It's out now via the band's Bandcamp

This ain’t no ordinary spit’n’sawdust dive: sure it reeks of smoke, of beverages long spilled between the cracks, of rage-fuelled bar brawls, but there is an eeriness you cannot quite shake off, one addled with the inescapable dread a lifelong exposure to horror movies has instilled within you. Chills race down your neck as the near-dead clientele – inebriated townsfolk you assure yourself aren’t…