Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss
Release Date: 26th April 2024
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Bandcamp
Genre: Grindcore, Powerviolence, Noise, Sludge.
FFO: NAILS, Napalm Death, Primitive Man.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Hi kids, do you like violence? Wanna see me write about a band whose efforts will make you want to stop and sniff the violets? Sorry, that was bad. Anywho, horrible rhyming, and throwback, aside, it will not diminish from what was mentioned; the band to be discussed today, Full of Hell, is full of such violence, anger, ferocity, and unfettered explosiveness, that it’s somewhat shocking they aren’t already one of the official bands for the world’s End of Times®, along with an apocalyptically doom-laden band like Primitve Man. Over the course of just short of a half hour, over twelve tracks, Full of Hell manages to capture a primitive ruthlessness that, up to this point, they’ve proven to be the hallmark of their intensity and, with this new one Coagulated Bliss, even their most recent collaborations are being left in the dust, because when Full of Hell is by themselves, nothing will stand in their way of world domination.
If their most recent collaborations, with Primitive Man and Nothing respectively, have shown us one thing, it’s that Full of Hell is not afraid. Period. Both of those albums brought forth the vintage sound reminiscent of walking over shards of glass covered in acid, interspersed with the flourishes of the band with which they collaborated, creating sonic soundscapes both brutally intense and shockingly captivating. Yet, when they are left to their own devices, Full of Hell is about one thing, and one thing only: violence. Over the course of these twelve tracks, ten of which don’t even average two minutes apiece, the band pummels, destroys, wreaks havoc, lather rinse repeat, and as a listener, you just sit their with a crooked smile on your face as the blast beats, shrieks, merciless riffing, and ill regard for anything in its path just takes you on the wildest ride of your life. Half Life of Changelings, our opener, begins at a mid-tempo pace, something akin to a standard post-hardcore track, before lighting everything on fire: double bass, demonic growls, black metal shrieks, tremolo riffs and, surprisingly enough, a bevy of melody. The ferocity comes at you at 100 mph, but the moments of slowing down, which bring back that opening melody, bring it all together into a sonic maelstrom that feels both organized and unapologetically unhinged: just north of a minute has passed.
Fractured Bonds to Mecca feels like the band sat down and wrote a track meant to make us physically uncomfortable; the beats pulled straight from a Nine Inch Nails record, the bass pulsating from the speakers like a runaway freight train, layered shrieks and growls pulled from the very depths of hell, suddenly we’re hit by noise, high-pitched feedback a moment of respite, as it were, before the mid-tempo ride continues, tinged with the loud, punctuated reverberations of bells before it all just dissipates, leaving only the sporadic bell amidst an electronic beat. A wild ride, one of the slowest yet most intense that Full of Hell will take you on.
Clocking in at a whopping 6 minutes 47 seconds, Bleeding Horizon is easily the longest track on the album, taking up at least 5 tracks worth of time; a clean guitar opening provides us safe company for a half minute before we’re struck in the face with feedback, preceding a long, deep guitar riff, glacially paced, our minds wandering as we think of where the band is going to take us next. At nearly the two-minute mark, the bass and drums invade, the pace never wavering, shrieks pained, like they’re coming from an elevator shaft. The bass pulses like a heartbeat, keeping everything on point, the whole thing is doom and gloom, a deathmarch into the bowels of the underworld. As we close in on the end of the track, the tempo picks up but barely past a mid-tempo riff fest, a slow, steady headbang that would make any doom band damn proud.
Vomiting Glass brings us back into the world of violence, as listeners are mercilessly beat for barely a minute: blast beats, shrieks, and an off-putting, borderline unsettling riff in the background, reminiscent of an alarm going off, danger inching every closer. As the track pounds on, the guitar tone shifts to that of an unchecked swarm of murder hornets, the brief tempo shifts off kilter and masterfully pulled off, as we veer into a wall of noise, every sound occupying the same space as it sounds like we’re being sucked into the depths of the abyss, silence greeting us as the track comes to an end.
Our closer, Malformed Ligature, is an amalgamation of what the band can do: blistering, intense pace fighting for airtime with the mid-tempo doom full of those gnarly, uncomfortable riffs that feel like the monster is still chasing you even though things have slowed down to a comparable crawl, the entire track goes back and forth between these two competing, yet altogether perfectly blended, soundscapes to keep listeners ill at ease, waiting for a jump scare with bated breath as the band just slowly fades to black, the suspense all just in our head.
After barely a half an hour of your time has elapsed, you find yourself at the end, exhausted, having gone twelve rounds with a power puncher who also has unlimited stamina. A Full of Hell album is an experience, just enough mid-tempo amongst the chaos to provide moments of respite, for fear of being overwhelmed after taking a beating for every second of every song. In releasing Coagulated Bliss, Full of Hell has proven to the world that, despite the level of intensity and animosity they’ve released up to this point, in no way are they slowing down; rather, with this one, it somehow feels like they may just be getting started. If you like Full of Hell, Napalm Death, NAILS or any number of bands that shouldn’t be humanly capable of producing such angry music, then you’ll love this record. If you haven’t listened or just don’t know, a fair warning: the band lives up to their namesake.
(4.5 / 5)
