The Body & Full of Hell - "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache" (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/03/2016

Label: Neurot Recordings

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a nightmarish journey to the outer limits of sound; a cold, dark creation of cathartic noise almost entirely devoid of standard structure.  Covering so much ground over the course of a single album could easily make for a messy, disjointed experience. Somehow The Body and Full of Hell manage to pull these disparate styles and approaches together to make a coherent and consistently unsettling record.  “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is every bit as terrifying as you would expect from these two trailblazing acts.

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” CD//DD track listing:

1. One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
2. Fleshworks
3. The Butcher
4. Gehorwilt
5. World of Hope and No Pain
6. Himmel und Hölle
7. Bottled Urn
8. The Little death
9. Cain
10. Abel

The Review:

It says a lot about an album when the most conventional track is a torturous doom reworking of Leonard Cohen’s “The Butcher”. The Body and Full of Hell both have formidable reputations as bands as innovative as they are uncompromising, qualities that are amplified on this full length collaboration. “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a nightmarish journey to the outer limits of sound; a cold, dark creation of cathartic noise almost entirely devoid of standard structure.

“The Little Death” is the closest the record comes to fulfilling any narrow preconceptions of what this meeting of minds may sound like. The opening half is based around pummelling blastbeats, with intermittent squalls of guitar and electronics fighting for dominance over the dual howls of Dylan Walker and Chip King. This degenerates into a treacly, sludgy second half, making this the perfect warped combination of grind and doom one might have expected.

The rest of the album sees both bands channelling their more challenging urges to create bold new forms. The title track opens with a huge, lurching drumbeat that soon becomes the backdrop for menacing, clanging chords. The effect is like a middle ground between the slow motion terror of Khanate and the galactic dustbowl atmospherics of Barn Owl. The brief burst “World of Hope and No Pain” gives way to the claustrophobic cloud of “Himmer und Holle”. Over 6 minutes the bands build up layers of crackling static and shards of prickly noise, harrowing vocals pushed to the background like captives screaming for help from the eye of a tornado. “Bottled Urn” serves up 4 minutes of sharp stuck-groove noise rock, relentlessly hammering like a malfunctioning piston before finally breaking under the pressure.

Covering so much ground over the course of a single album could easily make for a messy, disjointed experience. Somehow The Body and Full of Hell manage to pull these disparate styles and approaches together to make a coherent and consistently unsettling record. It’s by no means an easy listen but “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is a gripping ride and every bit as terrifying as you would expect from these two trailblazing acts.

“One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache” is available here

Band info: facebook (thebody) || facebook (fullofhell)