By: Eeli Helin
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 14/05/2019
Label: Relapse Records
”Weeping
Choir” CD//DD//CS//LP track listing:
1.
Burning Myrrh
2.
Haunted Arches
3.
Thundering Hammer
4.
Rainbow Coil
5.
Aria of Jeweled Tears
6.
Downward
7.
Armory of Obsidian Glass
8.
Silmaril
9.
Angels Gather Here
10.Ygramul
the Many
11.
Cellar of Doors
The Review:
The
US noisy grindcore envoys Full
of Hell are
back with a blast, releasing their fourth full-length (excluding their collabs
with The Body)
”Weeping
Choir” on May 14th, and the first under Relapse Records. It's been two years since
their previous two albums, ”Trumpeting Ecstacy” and ”Ascending
a Mountain of Heavy Light”, their second album with the aforementioned
experimental noise duo. The band's been highly prolific throughout their ten
year career, and ”Weeping Choir” sounds like a band on their apex form.
Over
time, Full of Hell's sound has evolved from
more straightforward, hardcore impulsed grindcore into more noisy, more death
metal influenced amalgamation of styles, and the evolution has been nothing but
natural. You can also hear how the band has shaped and mastered their own
territory, from where they can shoot to any direction without losing themselves
or their fans in the process, conveniently always keeping their core exposed.
You'll also find numerous confluences between their releases, tying it all ever
so elegantly together without coming across as repetitive or harping.
”Weeping
Choir”, as addressed by the band, is the direct continuation and mirror
image of 'Trumpeting Ecstasy'. The idea is imminent since the
songs share the same topics and dictums, the artworks are sort of inversions of
each other and so on. The 25 minute LP ignites with "Burning Myrrh". With zero bullshit, the song eviscerates
everything on it's way, churning unforgivingly for one and a half minutes
before collapsing into a doomy outro glazed with haunting clean tones toward
the end, fittingly proceeding straight into the second song titled "Haunted Arches". This and the
following track "Thundering Hammers"
continue to pillage and ravage in customary manner, giving the album one hell
of a start. The next turn is slightly unexpected; "Rainbow Coil" is a longer instrumental build-up consisting of
only noise and samples.
Personally, I'm delighted that the band can pull of
such an abrupt move so early on without losing the momentum at all. At this
point you'll also pay attention to the production of the album.
Produced/recorded by Kurt Ballou of Converge and mastered by Brad Boatright like the previous
album, the overall sound is punishing but clear, keeping the grindcore identity
and integrity without sacrificing itself upon the altar of messy and downright
unpleasant execution.
"Aria of Jeweled Tears" picks up
the pace and appears as the strongest track so far, followed up "Downward", a piece more
reminiscent of the times of ”Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home”
and ”Rudiments
of Mutilation”. At this point I might add, and people who like this
sort of music will know what I mean, it might be hard to pick up any certain
riffs or reasons to why certain tracks come across stronger than others. It's a
matter of feeling and flow rather than the individual moments, which there are
still many that can be clearly pointed out if necessary. A lot of these moments
are sprinkled across "Armory of
Obsidian Glass", the Lingua Ignota featuring gloomy and putrid magnificent oeuvre clocking nearly
seven minutes, acts as a cornerstone placed precisely where it needs to be. The
tracks swirls and sways between pummeling and redeeming, managing to capture a
wide range of compositional dynamics and feelings to a single song. Lingua Ignota's feat is also spot on,
guaranteed to give kicks to fans of either and both. Towards the end, the song
introduces a new, blatantly and facetiously put, emotional side to the bands
output, again proving Full
of Hell to
be a perennial shape shifter.
The
remaining four tracks serve some of the highlights of their discography; "Silmaril" offers unexpected tempo
changes and a vocal section resembling more of a moving clog in a sewer than a
human. "Angels Gather Here"
sounds like it could be in one of the collaboration albums with The Body, showing that Full of Hell are more than capable to
rejoice in that kind of noise by themselves too. "Ygramul the Many" slaps in a saxophone solo, relating to the
closer track in the Merzbow collab. "Cellar of Doors" conjures some
pretty disgusting demons before offering the album an appropriate, sudden end.
Without
turning this to anymore of a novel, ”Weeping Choir” is currently Full of Hell's grand work. It falls
perfectly in line with all of their other releases, and continues their upward
crawl back to God. What they do when they get there is unknown, but something
to look forward to.
”Weeping
Choir” is available here
