Review Summary: Aaaaand there goes your head.
I rarely listen to an album that is not the one I'm reviewing during the act of drafting it up. But here I am, with freaking Bauhaus being injected directly to my eardrums in a poor attempt of pacifying my thoughts after exposing them to
Garden of Burning Apparitions, Full of Hell's latest scheme for an unhealthy amount of time. I've reached a painful nirvana, friends, a masochist's favorite guilty pleasure that only Pennsylvania's predilect purveyors of tinnitus knows how to inflict in proper measure. They've been especially merciful this time, with twenty minutes clocking in by the time the first drops of blood fall down your cheeks, but have they cranked it up?
LET'S FIND OUT.
Short answer: yes. Seriously, I think something like "Derelict Satellite", collaboration with Canadian noise architect Ryan Bloomer, can only be described as a distress signal from the Event Horizon spaceship, where unimaginable horrors are taking place, to the point that the crew is ripping off their ears out of desperation. Full of Hell are comfortable in the static, the chaos, the white noise swamp where their lair perseveres the erosion of time, one album after the other, their ideas seem far from exhausted, in fact, the four-piece from Maryland sound even more vicious with every new release. The one-two punch that breaches the album, namely "Guided Blight" and "Asphyxiant Blessing" is unforgiving, with David Bland blasting over anything that axe executioner Spencer Hazard throws at him. Riffs don't matter, Bland is gonna blast the living *** out of it or d-beat them like a thunder summoning the ultimate mosh pit. "Reeking Tunnels" sees him and the FoH crew more collected that usual, with post hardcore leanings dominating the track, or closer "Celestial Hierarch" dooming its way out through a stream of otherworldly interferences.
The rest is business as usual for Full of Hell. "Murmuring Foul Spring" sees some interesting additions like the bass clarinet played (or tortured) by Shoshana Rosenberg from, I believe, Australian hardcore punk band Spiteward and it’s one track you don’t wanna miss. The already classic sax, played by the not-only-the-bass-player Sam DiGristine, also crashes the party midway of "Urchin Thrones", an ominous shadow at first, but then it shines so briefly that it sounds like Sam just fell from the above room through the ceiling into the recording room while the rest were recording the song. "All Bells Ringing" starts off with a somewhat joyful riff, but it's promptly played on a lower scale turning the song into a demonic minute. As you can read, Full of Hell in all its glory. In all honesty, the only thing that I miss on this
Garden of pain, is a stroke of genius like "Armory of Obsidian Glass", from
Weeping Choir, a different breed of a song, a space where melody meets the band's infernal sound to create something truly astonishing.
But in line with the band's first releases, and not different from their several plots with The Body or Merzbow,
Garden of Burning Apparitions is unrelenting, with Dylan sounding like a headless beast screaming directly from its lungs through its blood pumping neck and the band playing their instruments like their life depended on it. The production also sees some renovation, a slightly different aura, with Seth Manchester this time at the controls instead of Kurt Ballou, which has resulted in a grittier, even more unrefined mix, if that was even possible.
Nevertheless, the lethal grindcore squad hits ten with this new release engrossing a catalogue that knows no missteps just yet. If hell is what you want, hell is what you'll receive. In abundance.
