It is 2024, and Full of Hell is still not standing still. Given, they’ve never really done that. From the rough powerviolence beginnings and through collaborations with artists as diverse as Merzbow or The Body, Full of Hell had arrived at their peak. The trilogy that began with 2017’s Trumpeting Ecstasy and ended with 2021’s Garden of Burning Apparitions had seen the band incorporate noise, sludge, death metal, grind with a heavy lust for creativity. Very little was left to explore in that realm, and 2022’s EP Aurora Leaking From An Open Wound had already foreshadowed that a stylistic reorientation would be imminent. Coagulated Bliss explores the same textures that the EP did, but on a bigger scope and to better effect. I called the EP “Full of Hell does the Jesus Lizard” at the time, and I would argue that the analogy has stood the test of time. There is a notable noise rock influence to the album and it feels distinctly like the industrialized noise rock of the 90s that has smitten their recent work, seeing Full of Hell playing slower and more groove-oriented. The riffs are less wild and chaotic, but somehow nastier and with more bite. There is still vitriol to Full of Hell‘s sound, but there is less of that controlled chaos, less of the calculated hairpin turns and less of a breadth of styles than in the past. This version of the band is more committed to one interpretation of their sound than before.
This is the type of sound that some reviewers might be tempted to call “matured”. That phrase is usually a hack word for a reviewer so he can sell the idea to you that a band doing less is somehow good. Listening to Coagulated Bliss, I do admittedly sometimes wish that the album had more of those aggressive outbursts. Ironically, even though Full of Hell has remained eclectic at all times, they did build an expectation in my mind and I struggled with that expectation not being fulfilled at first. Luckily, this does not feel like the band serves up less and asks for credit for doing so. Coagulated Bliss is different. I find myself nodding along to the groove more often than in the past and while I enjoy being jerked around usually, the benefit of an album more committed to a stylistic idea is consistency. This is one of Full of Hell‘s most consistently good albums, with basically no low points and a fantastic pacing. This doesn’t mean that the album lacks variety, of course. When the band commits to their sludgier side, like on “Transmuting Chemical Burns”, delightfully distorted with the sampled noise drums, or the epic six minute track “Bleeding Horizon”, which utilizes one slow, deliberate one chord build, it really works. And Full of Hell is smart enough to nestle the foot-tap inducing title track between the two. Like many grind bands nowadays, Full of Hell isn’t moving forward but sideways. The crabwalk enables bands like these, who are willing to find a new sounds in the delectable dumpster fire that is deathgrind, to search for brighter, more poignant pastures. And as long as Full of Hell is moving, they will remain a favorite of mine.
