Thursday 13 March 2014

FULL OF HELL / CALM THE FIRE - Split 7" Review

(A389-134) FULL OF HELL / CALM THE FIRE Split 7" cover art

Album Type : Split 7”
Date Released : 30/11/2013
Label : A389 Recordings

FULL OF HELL / CALM THE FIRE – SPLIT, track listing :

1).Full Of Hell- Return To The Mines 
2). Full Of Hell- Kopf 
3). Full Of Hell- The Lonely Path Of The Cestoda 
4). Full Of Hell- Molluck 
5). Calm The Fire- Paralyzed 
6). Calm The Fire- We'll Be Fine 

Bio :

Maryland's FULL Of HELL are a harsh, noise power electronics infused hardcore band whom you should know/love by now.  Their side of the split contains three vicious hardcore tracks that fit perfectly in between both LP releases.  

Poland's
CALM THE FIRE is on the flipside with powerful crusty d-beat hardcore.

Split was originally released as a limited pressing on HOLY ROAR records and is now available with altered artwork by Szymon Siech!  

Review :

Raging split ahoy! Some sailing lingo, there. Under the microscope today we have another battle royale of a release from A389, divided between Full Of Hell (USA) and Calm The Fire (Poland). An international dust up with more explosive flavour than a Rocky sequel dipped in a volcano of monosodium glutamate.

Full Of Hell contribute most of the split, with four of the six cuts belonging to them. They blast out a form of grind influenced hardcore, manic as shit. Like a fork scraping across your face. A very dirty, rusty fork. I hope we all have the correct immunisations in place. 'Return to the mines' is a bassy, creepy and squealing intro - very 'calm before the storm' diversionary tactic. It erupts into some more punk-end spectrum hardcore, solid and sturdy. 'Kopf' is far more grinding though, replete with the death metal styling’s that go hand in hand with that form of heaviness. Less than sixty seconds of bad intentions all up in your grill. 'The Lonely Path of the Cestoda' is even shorter and brutal, very raw and violent. Between the lightning riffs and ADD drums it's difficult to find any space to breathe. Only at the rear end of 'Molluck' does any sense of a manageable or digestible rhythm actually appear, with a tasty bruiser of a riff fading out. Seriously damaging and one’s to watch.

The two tracks that are on offer from Calm The Fire are far more friendly, more of your standard modern metallic hardcore. Think the Polish version of Doomriders, there is some rock and roll thrown up in the mix here somewhere. 'Paralyzed' is bouncy but never upbeat, heavy in all the right places and probably longer than the entire FOH running time on this damn thing (a meaty three and a half minutes!), but the ferocity factor that has already been established is tough to follow. Still a really good tune though, as is the more storming 'We'll Be Fine'. I prefer this track, way more vital and pounding. The type of hardcore you can feel in your chest.

All in all, both bands are spitfires but Full of Hell are the kind of spitfire that would go on a suicide run, crash and then come back to haunt the thing that it crashed into originally. Possessed of a mean streak a mile wide and quite evidently in a constant state of being pissed off, they go home with the belt in this title fight. Calm The Fire came out swinging though, and are a cool outfit in their own right - you should check out both bands today, and this split is the perfect way to go about achieving that.

Words by : Matt Fitton

You can buy it here

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