Full Of Hell – Coagulated Bliss
Reviewed By: Kenneth Gallant
Review Score: 9
This must be one of the shortest albums on record I have reviewed, but it’s chock full of dissonant sounds, bombastic noise and all-out aggression. There’s definitely something to be said for bands who adopt the short but sweet approach and Full Of Hell pull this off rather well.
I picked this album to review for a few reasons. Firstly, I just love digging into music that challenges your senses and secondly, experimental music of this nature is essentially music to my ears. Full Of Hell hail from Pennsylvania and started out mainly as punk-based, however on album number three (Trumpeting Ecstasy) they switched allegiances to a death metal sound. It’s hard to pin the band down for a definitive genre tag, but let’s just say they are parts grindcore/death metal/experimental noise rock and maybe whatever else you can think of.
Coagulated Bliss is their sixth studio release and it clocks in at a little over twenty-five minutes. Almost every track barely reaches two minutes, except for tracks six and twelve. Obviously this is the band’s modus operandi over the course of the previous five releases and this new one is no exception. I think calling it Coagulated Bliss makes perfect sense; mainly because they have a distinct identity musically; plus its a melting-pot of balls-out sound.
Tracks like ‘Half Life Of Changelings’ and ‘Doors To Mental Anguish’ moan aloud and spit out the death
metal template in short nasty gasps. Things then switch a bit on ‘Transmuting Chemical Burns’ with
those rabid-dog like vocals and manic percussive beats barely following along. The opening to ‘Fractured Bonds To Mecca’ starts with a Nine Inch Nails vibe and spirals into a droning wail of cacophonic sounds of feedback noise, gnarly vocals, and oddly sounding percussive beats.
The title track is straight forward and on-point with guitars that sear flesh like melted butter. The riffs are precision clean here and surprisingly this is probably the most standard track in the bunch. After that we get the longest track ‘Bleeding Horizon’ starting out with an array of ear-piercing feedback, while droning along to sludgy vocals and repetitive beats for close to five minutes. It picks up a bit at the end when the vocals shift into a raspy tone, but to be honest six minutes is enough for me.
Next up ‘Vomiting Glass’ clocks in under a minute; it’s short and packs a big punch. The same can be said on ‘Schizoid Rupture’ following a similar pattern. I swear the next track ‘Vacuous Dose’ spits out venom vocally and jams in short-bursting riffs for good measure. It might just be me, but my ears could pick out the sounds of the band Rush seeping through the guitar harmonies. I could be wrong though, but I wanted to note that here.
‘Gasping Dose’ is a treat on the technical guitar harmonies that often bring to mind World Circus era Toxik into the mix. Again, this song strives for a traditional death metal approach and I find that immensely appealing at this juncture. Then ‘Gelding Of Men’ erupts and goes from quirky to bombastic sounds and lets the vocals screech to an all-time high on this track. Finally, we end this raucous affair on ‘Malformed Ligature’, a slower and more composed effort that ties in some horns at the end to fittingly cap things off.
There’s much to like on Coagulated Bliss. The short bursts of sounds and mostly inaudible barking
throughout with the vocals may irritate the ears of some, but to me it sounds heavenly. I can pick out moments and passages that remind me of certain bands. In particular, Full Of Hell utilize technical guitar harmonies (sparingly), but done in this off-kilter moan that brings to mind World Circus from technical thrash band Toxik. It might not be the correct comparison, but that’s what comes to mind at the moment. Maybe after a few more spins I might hear something different.
Regardless, this is a challenging release for my tastes. I highly recommend Coagulated Bliss to anyone who enjoys going off the traditional path and get into sonic dissonance at it’s finest. I don’t think this release is going to disappoint.
Coagulated Bliss will be released through Closed Casket Activities on April 26th.