Holly Hunt - Prometheus EP (Review)

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 29/4/2014

Label: Other Electricites

‘Prometheus’ DD/Vinyl track listing:

1). Meano

2). Saturn Devours Children

3). Prometheus

Bio:

Following their highly lauded full-length album Year One, Holly Hunt returns with a 3-song, 12’’ EP, Prometheus. Recorded by Jonathan Nuñez of Torche and mastered by New Alliance East, the record builds on the two-piece’s reputation for metal that’s crafted with the heaviest alloys, and a most magisterial patterning - the type that drones vehemently and drowns in the blues.

Drummer Beatriz Monteavaro (Floor, Cavity) and guitarist Gavin Perry have demonstrated themselves as a loud and lumbering giant of the Miami music scene. The visceral impact of sound - the raising heart rate, neck chills, the warmth spreading throughout your torso - this is Holly Hunt’s raison d'être. Prometheus manages to transmit an almost perfect rendering, delivering listeners to a heightened physical (and mental and spiritual) state. The record conjures the image of an approaching behemoth, striking paranoia and fear until the final, exhilarating sweep of humanity’s total destruction.

Where Year One established the bedrock of Holly Hunt’s punishing sound, Prometheus thunders with the clarity of a crack of lighting. It establishes a supremely balanced, critical distance between amp worship and riff devotion, rising and falling with ecstatic highs and sublime lows. And while Year One represented the genesis of the band's existence; Prometheus stands as a churning, threatening hint of things to come.

Prometheus is a joint release by Other Electricities and Sonic TITAN.

The Band:

Beatriz Monteavaro | Drums

Gavin Perry | Guitars

Review:

There is something inherently beautiful about that feeling you get when you first remove a vinyl from its sleeve and place the needle on it. When listening to any album this feeling exists but when it comes to the fuzzy & sludgy stuff nothing quite hits the needle like it. The blend of crackles with the grime is perfection, and in some way the sounds from a vinyl take on a more 3D life force with each instrument almost floating in its own space.

There is little situation more fitting than putting the needle down on Holly Hunt’s Prometheus. “Utter Sludge Perfection”, is an apt description and if you aren’t familiar, let’s have a short catch up session.  Holly Hunt is a 2 piece instrumental act from Florida that features Beatriz Monteavaro (FLOOR\CAVITY) on Drums & Gavin Perry on guitar. ‘Prometheus’ is the follow up to 2012’s Year ONE which was rapturously received and also worth getting your hands on at the same time as ‘Prometheus’, at a  mere 3 songs, every minute counts on this EP.

They open with ‘Meano’, a massive wall of fuzz and girth acts as the prelude to the pummelling that ensues.  Indeed, this is the musical equivalent of an elephant charging at you in slow motion. Equally ominous is the pulsing ‘Saturn Devours His Children’ reminiscent of Jesu/Godflesh where chords create cliffhangers amongst the pulsing waves of percussion. Then we have the title track ‘Prometheus’, 9m 40s of downright sludge gold. There is a hypnotic feel about this release, I found myself nodding and wobbling back and forth throughout both sides of the vinyl EP.

In summation, ‘Prometheus’ is an absolute must have for any fan of sludge/doom.  It does what few instrumental acts can do. It keeps your attention and draws you in like a tractor beam.  It is a thudding and pulsating giant of a record!

Below you will find the links to both the digital and vinyl versions of the record. I suggest you buy the vinyl, add some drinks, a great set of speakers and a blind fold (or just close your eyes).  Sit back and soak this in properly

Words by: Stephen T. Barton

For more information:

Digital Version http://hollyhunt.bandcamp.com/

Vinyl VERSION http://other-electricities.com/album/oe037

The Band’s Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HOLLYHUNT.LTD