#Earl of Hell

[doomedandstoned]

EARL OF HELL Kick up Dust in Breakthrough Debut LP

~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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[atoadinahole]

A bunch of fur fur earl of hell scetches

[wonderingwarlockofthenight]

Furfur

Also known as Furtur or Ferthur

Demon of storms, tempests, thunder, lightning, secrets and love, and Great Earl/Count of Hell

[boitedeconcert]

Earl Of Hell

The Cluny, Newcastle, England. 26/01/25.

[moleofmetal]

GIG REVIEW: Dundee Metal Fest 2023

https://www.facebook.com/events/891266912230897/ Bands: Fallen Ashes, Ride The Tides, Earl of Hell, Hyperstasis, Deadfire, Bed Of Wasps, H8teball, Extort, Solar Sons, Volcano X, Catalysis, Dog Tired A challenger appears! After years of dominance by Paul at Slow Dragon Music and the furious Hordes bringing Dundee’s only all-day metal gig/festival in town, Drew of Catalysis fame (and of the even…

[firebound-press]

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO I PROUDLY PRESENT!!!!!! A FULL COLLECTION OF FISH N CHIP WORKS BY @earlgay-milktea !!!!!!!

My first ever leatherbound book!!!! Over 650 pages!!!!! My first time doing double core endbands!!!!! It’s all in here!!!!!!!!

It’s got custom graphics by @fishcop !!!! It’s got a couple graphics from me!!!!!! We’ve got it all!!!!!!

Ive been working on this book for over a year now and I’m so so proud to finally have it done. There’s a lot of stuff I could say about this bind but it mostly boils down to “holy shit I actually did it that’s so cool”

A lot of love and work went into this bind so if you have any questions please don’t be afraid to ask! Please!! I want to talk about it!!!!

Works featured:

Heart of the Sea

Breaking Free

Honesty Is The Best Fallacy

Captive Hero

Lovefool

Bitter Water

advancing on real ground

Wreck the Halls

Before Daybreak

You can also read Earls other work here:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgay_milktea

[theseusgodkid]

happy birthday to kermit the frog!!!! i put him in hit dnd podcast just roll with it to celebrate <33

getting rlly into the muppets lately guys

[earlgraytay]

i don't think this author knows about the child mortality graph.

like. I understand that anthropology is the cultural relativity discipline, that half the point and half the job is going, "okay, these people believe stuff that we don't, it makes sense within their cultural context, let's treat it with the respect we'd give any other idea (and take our own ideas apart from the same point of view)". I understand that. I get that there are no sacred cows in anth - unless you're in India- I get it.

But you cannot look at this goddamn graph:

-- and tell me that the only difference between scary icky Enlightenment-white-guy invasive buzzwordy Western biomedicine and everything else is cultural values.

[scliffe]

Highly appreciate that Ciel went through this and the first thing he did after he came back was put his foot up Sebastian’s shoulder

[whollyjoly]

i just want to take a second for the absolute legend, james earl jones, who passed away today.

the voice of darth vader himself.

you defined my childhood (and, honestly, most of my adult life) in a way that cant be put into the words. the terror and fear and power you put behind vader made him such an incredible villain, but also the pain and the loss and the love for his family you voiced made him feel so real and so human, even behind the mask. it's so amazing how voice actors are able to bring such expression, emotion, and life to a character. ESPECIALLY one that solely exists in a mask! there's no facial expression, no visible emotion that we can see. all we have is some basic movements and a voice - and your voice, sir, was what made vader into one of the most iconic characters in all of film and tv history. how you were able to show such power and anger and certainty and resignation and grief and finally, relief? when all you see is a mask? its just...mind blowing.

and your love for the character was so tangible!! voicing vader in countless projects until 2016!!! almost 40 years of such an incredible legacy!!

my favorite star wars movie of the skywalker saga is return of the jedi. in it are my favorite scenes in all of star wars - luke and vader on endor, and then the throne room scene with luke facing off against darth vader and the emperor.

we see vader as such a force for evil across most of the original trilogy. hell, even in the stuff that came out later that you voiced (revenge of the sith, rebels, rogue one) - vader is fucking terrifying.

but there's such an amazing shift in vader when we see him interact with luke for the first time since the reveal of their relationship. luke is trying to convince vader to turn, to leave with him and disobey the emperor. there is such a....weight, for lack of a better term, that you give vader's responses that stole my breath away from the moment i first heard it. you managed to take this villain, this boogeyman of the star wars universe clad in black armor and machinery, and made him feel so incredibly, beautifully human.

and when i heard vader say the line "it's too late for me, son" to luke's pleading, it changed everything for me. the amount of grief held in those words, the pain that you could feel. in that moment, vader changed from a monster of nightmare into something so tragic. it was amazing. it was heartbreaking. it was beautiful.

and i think that was the moment i think i truly fell in love with star wars. and it was because of you.

(and that's not even to mention some of the other incredible lines that made vader such an incredible character!! i think of how young you made him sound in revenge of the sith - that "where is padme?" fucking haunts me. and yes there are so many classic and amazing vader "NOOOs", but the one that really gets me is the one when he decides to save luke, to find the light again, to choose his destiny. the way you portrayed that conflict and resolve with a simple two-letter word? amazing.)

anyways, just....thank you. thank you for your gift, for your talent, for your legacy. you will, quite literally, never be forgotten.

may the force be with you, james earl jones. always.

[sebfreak]

"Abandoning your revenge is a breach of our contract."

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[boitedeconcert]

Earl Of Hell

Trillians, Newcastle, England. 20/07/23.

[iamvanillacherry]

Craving Earl Gray right now ✧⁠*⁠。

[daredevil-artwork]

Daredevil by Danny Earls

[kogglyuffs]

i dont rlly post sketches here but yah sure why not