Review Summary: Taking a bite of the forbidden fruit.
In an interview with Distorted Sound Magazine, vocalist Dylan Walker described the themes and inspiration behind Full of Hell’s latest offering
Weeping Choir as “the upheaval of forbidden knowledge and all of the pleasure and turmoil that would come in its wake.” It is an appropriate concept for a band like Full of Hell to reflect upon on their latest album, which is a culmination of all their trials and experimental endeavors to date. Throughout their decade-long tenure as a band, Full of Hell has been open to experimentation and collaboration: they have crafted albums jointly with experimental noise terrorists like The Body and Merzbow and released a multitude of splits with hardcore and metal acts like Code Orange, NAILS, and Intensive Care. With every major full-length release, Full of Hell has changed their direction and stepped into new territory and
Weeping Choir is their most fearless and adventurous release to date.
The glaring criticism against 2017’s
Trumpeting Ecstasy was how the band dialed back its experimentation in favor of a more devastating and streamlined death metal-meets-grind approach. This is not the case on
Weeping Choir. Full of Hell have since doubled down on their forays into noise and industrial music. “Rainbow Coil” is an odyssey into strange ambient soundscapes; drums and gunfire rattle against an eerie backdrop of siren-like noises and scraping feedback. “Angels Gather Here” is a straight-forward heavy industrial romp that would fit right in on a Youth Code album. It is apparent that Full of Hell have learned a few tricks from collaborators like Merzbow and The Body. If
Trumpeting Ecstasy relied too heavily on its directness, then
Weeping Choir does just the opposite, as if to retaliate against stagnation.
That’s not to say Full of Hell have relented on their blitzkrieg approach to extreme metal; a bulk of
Weeping Choir sees them operating within their usual parameters. “Thundering Hammers” and “Silmaril” are simple cut-throat death metal cyclones that are over in the blink of an eye. On songs like opener “Burning Myrrh” and “Aria of Jeweled Tears” their fusion of harsh noise and bludgeoning grind has never came off so seamlessly. However, nothing on
Weeping Choir feels quite as dangerous as
Trumpeting Ecstasy (namely daggers like “Crawling Back to God” and “Gnawed Flesh”). Instead, Full of Hell’s latest offering showcases a band at their most potent and fearlessly creative. It is evident that
Weeping Choir is the record the band has been working up to since their inception and solidifies that, even four albums and a multitude of bite-sized projects and collaborations later, Full of Hell is a band that refuses to rest on its laurels.
