The merchants of tinnitus. The masters of feedback. The bringers of the motherfucking ruckus. Renowned both within the scene and on the outskirts for their raucous live shows, twisted output and complete disregard for your ear canals, it doesn’t get much heavier than Full Of Hell. With the band set to decimate venues up and down the UK this coming week, including a stop off at London’s newest live music hot spot Kamio, we look back over their career of destruction and pick out the prime cuts for the novice who is looking to have their mind melted.
Dichotomy
The opening of FOH’s guttural magnum opus ‘Rudiments Of Multilation’ is a pretty good benchmark for whether this rowdy are for you or not. Demonic growls plaster themselves over some of the most piercing feedback ever recorded while discomforting drums fill your chest with an ever-increasing sense of dread. Should really come with a THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION WARNING. If this is too much for you, best to turn back now and listen to some Kylie or something instead.
Amber Mote
If you listen really closely to this cut from 16’s ‘Amber Mote In The Black Vault’ EP there is a lick of beautifully poignant melody about 10 seconds in. You’ve only got about the length of a blink to notice it though because it is ripped away before your very eyes to make way for frantic black metal percussions and howls of pure agony before descending into a desolating down tuned conclusion. Better luck next time.
The Lord Is My Light
Early last year the band opened proceedings for the almighty Converge on their extravagant ‘Blood Moon’ tour and quite literally tore the place a new bottom. When put up against each other the influence that the innovators of modern extreme music have had on the Full Of Hell lads is crystal clear, and none more than on this slow burning epic. Painful chords ring out and a stalking bassline creeps in and infects your senses as layer upon layer of brilliant noise builds until you are completely infatuated by the sounds swimming around your head. Jacob Bannon would be proud.
Gehorwilt
Taken from one of 2016’s most devilish and devastating releases, this collaboration between FOH and crusty noise legends The Body was enough to make your heart collapse in on itself. This particular slab of death utilised both band’s love of twisted electronics and dark samples to craft the sort of music you must hear while being dragged to the depths of hell itself.
Blue Litmus
Such a stir that Full Of Hell caused within the world of both hardcore and noise rock that even the godfathers of the genre wanted to get in on the action. The band’s collaboration with Japanese noise monger Merzbow was an assault on the senses, especially this slice of utter battery. Death metal leaning chords open up to an all out assault of stomach-churning carnage that you aren’t going to forget in a hurry. They say never meet your heroes, but when you can make music this fucking gruesome together why the hell wouldn’t you?
Horus
The way that the band have reworked and reimaged themselves over the year is clearest when you go right back to the beginning. This cut from 2010 EP ‘The Inevitable Fear Of Existence’ leans more towards the hardcore side of things than just total annihilation but it doesn’t stop it from being an absolute pit stomper. When you can produce jams like this on your first attempt, you know you’re on to something special.
Fox Womb
Back before they became one of the hottest properties in hardcore, Code Orange teamed up with our boys for a split that has since gone down as an absolute classic 10 minutes of pain. Sounding like it has been recorded in the dingiest basement you’ve ever seen, this slice of utter filth showed where FOH were beginning to head with their sound in their plot for world deafination (geddit?) and also helped to put the Code Orange lot on the metaphorical radar. A win for all involved.
Attrition of the Elm Caw
Headphone users, prepare thyself. This five-minute epic taken from the band’s 2012 split with The Guilt Of… isn’t for the faint of heart. Bubbling bass wraps itself around the sort of feedback that would make even the heartiest of soul’s ears cave in before descending into all-out audio torture. A perfect example of how Full Of Hell don’t always need to use riffs and beatdowns to completely ruin your life.
Bound Sphinx
Taken from the band’s latest and finest full-length ‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’, this is the embodiment of everything that Full Of Hell represent. Bile soaked roars of desolation? Check. Hardcore leaning heaviness mixed in with motion sickness influencing speed? Check. All held together by a deep and distressing atmosphere? Check. All achieved in less than 90 seconds? You bet. It doesn’t get much better than this.
‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’ by Full of Hell is out now on Profound Lore Records.
Full Of Hell will be playing an intimate show at Kamio @ Red Gallery in London on Friday, July 14th. Tickets are available here. Further details can be found on Facebook. Support comes from Unyielding Love, Grief Tourist, WEEPING and Working Men’s Club.
Full Of Hell links: Facebook|Twitter
Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)