Established in 2005, HUNG is a melodic/progressive death metal band based in New York City that transcends many boundaries within metal. Right off the bat, with its unusual line-up of electric violin and guitar switching off on leads, HUNG challenges the norm. Their music, epic in scope and range, moves fluently between brutal, aggressive riffs to eerily beautiful melodies to daredevil, virtuosic violin/guitar duets, all while maintaining its own distinct and cohesive sound.
Lyris Hung, the violinist and a session musician in NYC, founded the band with guitarist Jon Clark and bassist Sam Roon, the two of whom had worked together previously in Masque of the Red Death. After scouring the city searching for a vocalist and drummer, they found Moscow-born growler Dmitry Kostitsyn and drummer Mark Nettleingham (who also had worked with Roon previously in Chaotic Neutral). The chemistry was immediate and undeniable.
Though the five members of HUNG share a love of metal, they each come from a wide array of influences, ranging from classical and jazz to rock and, of course, metal. They brought these musical experiences together, creating a sound that is at once paying homage to the masters of European death metal and strikingly different.
HUNG's EP, Matter of the Blood (2006), is the quintet's first album together. Though it contains only five songs, the album runs almost 40 minutes, propelling listeners through a gamut of sounds and emotions. From the opening song, “Maria”, a dark and melodic death metal anthem, to the epic thirteen-minute “Left...For the New Life”, symphonic in its range and proportion, to the twistedly militaristic “Wishing Scar”, HUNG makes its mark upon the metal scene – and it is a lasting one.
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