Reid Haithcock
Audio By Carbonatix
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Fire, fury, and Full of Hell.
Reid Haithcock
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, the cover to Full of Hell’s 2017 album Trumpeting Ecstasy is worth 11 songs of ear-shredding brutality. Depicting a nun whose face has been replaced by flames, it’s an invitation and a warning to listeners: This is what Full of Hell sounds like.
An album full of guttural voices, heart-attack drum beats, and guitars that sound like they’re trying to claw their way out of hell, Trumpeting Ecstasy is the kind of record that would make a nun spontaneously combust if you played it outside her convent window.
One of the things that sets Full of Hell apart from their grindcore and death-metal peers, is their enthusiasm for collaboration: they’ve recorded records with Japanese noise legend Merzbow and The Body. Along with Trumpeting Ecstasy, they dropped their second collaborative album with The Body last year: the majestic and brutal Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light.
Trumpeting Ecstasy shares that spirit of collaboration: Members of Converge and Isis offer production and guest vocal duties (along with Nicole Dollanganger). Dollanganger’s sweet, plaintive voice offers a rare moment of beauty before the band gets back to what they do best: turning nuns into firecrackers.
Full of Hell plays Monday, May 28, at The Crescent Ballroom. Tickets are $11 to $13 at crescentphx.com.
