PlAcEmEnt:LoSt has found a permanent place in my library.
Marz Hall first started as an idea in 2018 as a way for Cincinnati metal frontman Marshall Hull to write songs that didn’t fit with his then band. During the pandemic his pet project blossomed into a full-fledged band making Marz Hall “punk by nature, pop by choice.”
PlAcEmEnT:LoSt is the band’s first album and explores the duality of both pop and punk music. The album features high tempo guitar riffs, catchy choruses (The Hurdle is still stuck in my head), some dancey music breaks (PlAcEmEnT:LoSt) and a delicate balance between melodic singing (Picture Frames and Common Trash) and anger-laced, spit-fired lyrics (Trigger and Weed and Candy.)
Upon first listen, I was thrown back to the early 2000’s when bands like Green Day and Sum 41 poured freely from my CD player. Marz Hall offers the same kind of raw and in-your-face energy that isn’t afraid to call out the wrongness of the world.
“It’s a record for the underdogs, the addicts, the people who had a bad day, and the people who fought a tough situation and over came it,” Hull said. “These times we encounter in 2023 between keeping a social presence, substances being shoved in your face, dealing with an unjust government, a class gap and just unfair time and struggles for the normal, everyday person.”
The band is comprised of Marshall Hall, Aaron Bowling on lead guitar, drummer Dirk Dugan, Mark Doan on bass guitar, and Vinnie Liberatore on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. The band debuted August 2022 with the single “U Wanted Me Dead” which reached over 20,000 streams on Spotify. The band wrote another 40 songs before deciding on the best 14 to go on the album.
“My favorite song on the record is “Brain Fell Out,” said Hull. “It means a lot to me because when I first wrote it, I was feeling the most defeated I’ve ever felt in music. That song gave me hope in not only a front man, but as a song writer too. That’s when Marz Hall was truly born.”
Marz Hall has spent the last four months touring the Midwest playing their released singles and teasing their unreleased songs from PlAcEmEnt:LoSt. Durning a packed performance at Oktoberfest Zincinnati, the band was pulled back on stage for an unplanned encore demanded from the crowd. Not having another song, Marz Hall jammed-banned a cover of “Good Riddance(Time of Your Life” by Green Day which has become a staple of their live performances.
PlAcEmEnT:LoSt is available November 17 on all streaming platforms.
Join the band at Madison Live November 18 for the album release party.
