ELIAS HULK
Unchained ESOTERIC
Lone album from long forgotten early 70s monsters of prog.
The sleeve for Elias Hulk’s first and only album depicts a crudely drawn monster that looks suspiciously like a certain green-skinned Marvel Comics superhero looming over a pair of naked and bound-up women. But the music on Unchained rises above the dumb, proto-metal imagery with its complex arrangements, diverse styles and virtuoso flights of musical fancy.
Obscure even at the time, the fivepiece formed in Bournemouth in 1968. They gained a following on the UK underground before signing with independent label Young Blood, eventually releasing Unchained in 1970.
Most of the album’s eight tracks follow a heavy prog blueprint that sees Pete Thorp laying a vocal theme over a central riff before the band leave the launchpad to their superior chops, solo or in unison, against unusual time signatures. Neil Tatum brandishes west coast psychedelic influences on We Can Fly before Bernard James takes a drum solo and Jim Haines’ tree-trunk bass is always up in the mix, grunting warthogstyle on Anthology Of Dreams. Hulk could have fallen victim to stylehopping dilettantism as tracks pinball between Nightmare’s Sabbathlike lumbering (albeit pumped with pin-sharp synchronised block chords) and light Latin jazz flavours of Been Around Too Long, or Free’s Fleetwood Mac black magic hoodoo followed by Coltrane-inspired raga rock on Delhi Blues yet they manage to retain command throughout.
Although attracting good reviews at the time, Unchained made little impact in the UK, unlike in Germany, where Elias Hulk built up an enthusiastic audience, which accounted for most of their sales. The band split in 1971, and their lone LP became a much-sought after artefact that inevitably skyrocketed in value. Initially reissued in 2007 when bassist Jim Haines and drummer Bernard James unexpectedly revived Elias Hulk, this latest iteration has been remastered (albeit with no additional extras), revealing it once again as a properly interesting prog curio.