Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss
April 26th, 2024
Grindcore / Experimental Metal
Closed Casket Activities
Ocean City, Maryland, USA
Maryland grindcore outfit Full of Hell are back with their sixth full length album, Coagulated Bliss, and if anything is to be gleaned from the utterly striking and bizarre cover art, you’re in for something special and downright weird on this one. This band has of course been no stranger to experimentation or infusing other genres into their brand of chaotic, heavy, and destructive grindcore, with harsh noise being the most frequent marriage to the band’s sound. On here, however, Full of Hell seem to be flirting more with elements of post-hardcore and noise rock than ever before.
The first track on here, “Half Life of Changelings”, is the most obvious example of this shift in direction on this album, featuring tons of discordant, diminished chords that juxtapose against frantic blast beats and frenetic tremolo picking, this song is a hell of way to open the record. It doesn’t stop there, though, as the next few tracks sort of revert back into “regular” grindcore and hardcore territory, all before the industrial juggernaut of “Fractured Bonds to Mecca” takes over. This song is a slog of pulsating pistons and ugly, sickly guitars that makes me feel queasy just to listen to. If anything this album has a great deal more variety than I feel like past Full of Hell records have offered up.
Primary vocalist Dylan Walker is backed up by both bassist and saxophonist Sam DiGristine and drummer Dave Bland, and together they create an unholy chorus of wretched, high pitched screams mixed with saliva-infused guttural growls. The vocal performance across this record is as consistent as ever with the previous releases from Full of Hell. They’re appropriately pissed off, disgusting, and bearing egregious rage.
The melodies and riffs from guitarist and noise-maker Spencer Hazard as well as DiGristine are nothing if not chaotic and disengaged from reality. While some cuts like the title track “Coagulated Bliss” feel a bit more rooted in conventional hardcore riff structures, with pulse-pounding power chords and chugs, other tracks on here veer much further into experimental territory. The song “Bleeding Horizon”, for example, opens with a lengthy drone metal intro of guitar feedback reminiscent of Earth before exploding into a prolonged segment of doomed out riffage. Other cuts like the previously mentioned “Half Life of Changelings” defy the sinister expectations of grindcore by sounding downright triumphant. Together these riff-makers have written what I consider to be some of Full of Hell’s best material yet.
Drummer Dave Bland is as on point as ever on this one, delivering explosive cacophonies of blast beats joined by prolonged segments of slow, pulsating doom drumming and quick two-step riffs. Bland is never one to let the same beat stick for too long, and keeps the listener guessing across this record. The previously mentioned track “Bleeding Horizon”, for example, may drone on for a few minutes, before morphing into a section that feels straight up inspired by sludge bands like Big Business and Torche both in the riffing and in the drumming. The fills are catchy, the blasts are ridiculously fast, and the variety on display keeps me engaged all the way through.
The production on here is absolutely fantastic as well. Everything sounds exactly as it should. In my opinion this is what a modern grindcore record ought to be produced like. The guitars aren’t adorned with tons of filters or crazy effects. Instead they sound raw and in your face, just recorded with a certain degree of clarity when juxtaposed with the drums and vocals. The same can be said for the other instruments as well. The gutturals are given a bit of reverb to enhance their cavernous nature, and there’s occasionally some similar reverb slapped onto the guitars during the doomier parts. Aside from that though, this album sounds polished and organic at the same time.
Full of Hell may have just released what to me is one of the best albums they’ve ever released. There’s some absolutely destructive riffage going on here, combined with a maniacal sense of genre-bending and experimentation married to traditional hardcore ideas. It’s got so much variety and such energetic performances mixed with catchy compositions that aren’t afraid to have fun. If the album art doesn’t draw you in initially, you should at least give the first song a try. You may be surprised just how much you like it.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Half Life of Changelings”
“Transmuting Chemical Burns”
“Coagulated Bliss”
“Bleeding Horizon”
“Vomiting Glass”
“Gelding of Men”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 