Finnish four piece, Dull of Down, have just released their fourth double single and we’ve been taking a listen to side A; Lullaby Time.
Lullaby Time is not what you’d expect from the title. This is no lullaby! A pounding 90s rock style track that ticks all the boxes for fans of Terrorvision or perhaps Black Crowes.
The track starts with a slightly grungy feel with twangy electric guitars and raspy vocals before the full band comes in and powers this into a strong, full blown rock song.
The rhythm guitars in the intro and verses are very well controlled stabs in perfect time with the kick and bass. There’s more happening in the choruses and the guitars really add to the power of the track.
The occasional harmony backs up that confident lead rock vocal especially well and really help to make it shine. The lead vocal is well controlled, with some great techniques, with some lovely gravel and raspiness and metallic tones.
The guitar solo is well constructed with some great tones and choices of notes. The triplet section towards the end of the solo is particularly impressive.
The drums in this track work well. We particularly love the occasional toms fills. This is a superb example of 90s style rock drumming with a great deal of versatility in the playing.
There’s a lovely break down after the solo followed by a brief moment of silence before blasting back in with the chorus to a stinger ending. At just 2 minutes and 46 seconds this track is over long before we were ready for it and perhaps that’s our only real criticism! We could imagine this going down well in a live situation, particularly, perhaps, an outdoor rock festival.
This is a well recorded track that we believe could be slightly better balanced with a few tiny EQ adjustments that the artist may wish to try. A boost around 100Hz to 125Hz would give the kick a little more ‘beef’ as well as giving the bass guitar a little more clarity. The snare is resonating a little at 390Hz so a thin notch out at that point would make that sound less noticeable. The whole track is quite heavy overall in the high mids so a small but wide cut centred around 3kHz would level things out a little. Perhaps a small shelf boost in the top octave too to give the whole track a little more ‘air’. As always these are just tiny suggestions based on our ears. The track already sounds great and we are looking forward to hearing more from this artist.
Lullaby Time was the first track we’ve heard so far from this talented Finnish band. With cool riffs, spectacular rock vocals and lots of rise and fall, what’s not to love!? We can’t wait to hear more.