#bound sphinx

Full of Hell Trumpeting Ecstasy

Full of Hell (or Heck, if you don’t like cursing) is a four-piece band that makes some heavy music, yet slapping any sort of genre label (insert X-core here) onto them would be doing their music a disservice. Since 2009, these east coast dudes have been doing serious heavy lifting in pretty much every extreme genre you can think of right now, from the excellent grindcore/powerviolence essentialism of their earliest two albums, to the avant, sludge-terror of their collaborations with The Body and Merzbow. Full of Hell has morphed from the new school champions of powerviolence to an unstable, toxic chameleon of noise, which isn’t just impressive, but also necessary given the typically-rigid confines of genre that a grindcore band faces.

Trumpeting Ecstasy finds the band gliding out of what’s easily the most esoteric point of their career. Last year, the boys were chilling in the studio with The Body for a record that plumbed the depths of noise and despair: One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache. They toured in support of the anniversary of Sepultura’s classic Roots album, inflicting their signature brand of pain onto the unsuspecting, old-head metal audiences. Now they’re back in their element for what’s easily the most cacophonous, ear-splitting, and completely unsettling listen of 2017.

As its album cover would suggest, Trumpeting Ecstasy is Full of Hell’s 23 minute takedown of religion, which sounds a bit pedestrian given that religion is a remarkably easy target for metal acts to take down. Thankfully, Full of Hell finds themselves on the cutting edge once again, despite the familiar subject matter. The lyrics, while mostly indecipherable through the frightening, shrill shrieks and low growls, are impressively poetic; they contain a level of esotericism uncommon in such a piss-and-vinegar genre of music. This, combined with the menacing clamor of the instrumentals, makes this record as riveting as a great, cosmic-horror novel.

“Deluminate” kicks open the album with its one minute, death-metal rush of hyperactive cymbal crashes and tremolo-picked guitar riffs before growling its way into “Branches of Yew.” This track displays Full of Hell’s intent for the record a little more clearly. “Branches” fantastically incorporates the ear-piercing, tortured shrieks of lead singer Dylan Walker, causing the bass riff to stop and start accordingly. The listener is constantly jerked around as if strapped to a faulty carnival ride with a grindcore band playing in the background. Dylan’s vocals are only getting more and more unique as Full of Hell matures. Following up is “Bound Sphinx,” bringing the band back to their hardcore-punk shit and hitting us with the album’s first moment of catharsis; at barely three minutes into the album, this release is much needed. The depraved, sickening blasts of noise do make their music quite enjoyable, however, the sludgy moments of abreaction are the truest cause of throwing fists through walls.

“The Cosmic Vein” keeps with the Lovecraft-ian horror theme, and somehow incorporates an awesome tapping solo. “Crawling Back to God” amps up the horrific feeling with its incredible guitar leads and unmatched drumming technicality, finding the band once again in headbanger mode. “Crawling Back to God” in many ways is the antithesis of the record. It’s not just an angry finger pointed at religious organizations, but a rapturous feeling of decimation. This album is the equivalent of fighting every boss in the Dark Souls universe at once with no shield and a broken dagger as a weapon.

“Gnawed Flesh” reignites the band’s sludge-metal spark while “Ashen Mesh” is a downright disgusting, guttural beatdown. “At the Cauldron’s Bottom” ends the album on a droning note before evaporating. Then, there’s one final standout. The second to last track is easily one of the most idiosyncratic track Full of Hell has ever released. The album’s title track is an industrial gothic churn that features sadcore singer Nicole Dollanganger throughout the majority of the track. Her angelic, yet childlike voice is eerie, cultish and evocative, enabling the band to ensnare the listener into an unsuspecting beatdown. I hope to hear more of this sound in the future because there’s little to nothing that sounds like this song.

Trumpeting Ecstasy succeeds in being the apocalyptic statement it wants to be without falling into any preset trappings of theme or genre. Full of Hell cleverly laces it’s album with head bangers that play out nicely with the moments of sheer-noise terror. Full of Hell’s niche might still be too bloody and ridiculous for some of the most ardent metal listeners. They possess the skill to experiment with the grindcore formula, a formula that has already been perfected. There may be times where the band causes too much cacophony and not quite enough reprise, but nonetheless, it’s a testament to their talent with how well they weave between hideous noise and head bashing breakdowns. Most impressively, they effortlessly pull it all together. Sometimes, there’s a dash of black-metal, a pinch of powerviolence, and perhaps a smidge of Jane Doe-era Converge to spice it up, but no part of this record sounds like Converge, Nails, Charles Bronson, Code Orange, The Body or any of those dudes. It sounds like these dudes, Full of Hell, and seeing their sound so fully realized is a pretty sick reason to blow that ecstasy trumpet and bring on the end times.

8.2/10

Ecstasy Tier: “Crawling Back to God”, “Bound Sphinx”, “Branches of Yew”, “The Cosmic Vein”, “Bound Sphinx”, “Trumpeting Ecstasy”, “Gnawed Flesh”, “Ashen Mesh”, “At the Cauldron’s Bottom”