The Body and Full of Hell - "Ascending A Mountain Of Heavy Light"

Full of Hell and The Body are both some of the most interesting and unique acts in Metal right now.  I first got into Full Of Hell around the time of their "Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home" album.  This album was wretched and gruesome, and showed right off the bat that Full Of Hell weren't scared to push Metal boundaries.  The production on this album wasn't outrageously bold, but it sounded like the band was performing directly from Hell.  There were elements of Hardcore Punk, Grindcore, Powerviolence, as well as old school Heavy Metal.  And while this album wasn't perfect, I certainly wanted to hear more.  On their 2013 album "Rudiments of Mutilation", Full Of Hell remained constant on their ongoing, full throttle trip to hell with some of the most ridiculous brutal Grindcore around.  This album was a whopping 24 minutes, but it was packed with character and memorable performances.  Not to mention, instrumentals so rough they would knock your teeth out.   Then, earlier this year Full of Hell released "Trumpeting Ecstasy".  Spoiler alert, it's one of my favorite metal albums of the year.  This album is by far the most concrete, explosive and concise release of the Full of Hell catalog.  This album is only about 23 minutes long, but it's just damn brutal, with tracks like "Crawling Back To God" seriously standing out.  That's Full of Hell, but The Body on the other hand, are a completely different animal.  While Full of Hell have always sounded like tortured demons straight from Hell, The Body have always come across as even more tortured.  Right from their sluggish beginnings on their 2012 self-titled album, The Body were ridiculously heavy.  They were making Doom metal that was just so dirty and Sludgy.  But the vocals The Body provided were always just so fucking piercing that for a while I didn't know how to even take them.  But over time, they've grown on me, and their debut album is a solid introduction to this duo.  However, it became pretty obvious very fast that The Body were a truly fearless duo ready for constant experimentation.  Their next release, "All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood" is a truly far out Metal album.  Believe it or not, it's a collaboration with the Assembly of Light Choir.  And this album, I really don't want to spoil.  It's brutal and awesome, but I can assure you it takes tons of patience.  The Body's next release, "Christs Redeemers" once again, took a whole lot of patience, bringing in a lot of the same influences as they had on their last two releases.  But it was becoming quickly apparent that The Body were truly fearless in Metal.   The Body's next full length album, is one of my favorites of theirs, a collaboration with producer The Haxan Cloak, "I Shall Die Here".  This is The Body's most experimental and far out album to date.  Combining suffocating and production that's overwhelming, The Body created an album that is seriously almost a little too dark and depressing.  But it's still just another reason that The Body are one of the most Experimental and Genre-Defying acts in Metal right now.  Then in 2016 The Body released "No One Deserves Happiness", arguably their most experimental album to date.  This album had electronic passages, stunning vocal guests, chilling spoken word pieces and more, all revolving around The Body's sluggish Doom Metal.  Once again, The Body seemed fearless.  During all of this between Full of Hell and The Body's careers, they also got famous for their split EP efforts with other bands like Code Orange and Nails.  But in 2016, they came together for "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache", an all-out assault on your soul and your ears. All bets were off with this one, and you could literally hear anything at any given moment.  Tracks like "Cain" and "Gehorwilt" were just so explosive and exciting.  There were some times where I wished that the band's more experimental sides would come out.  But overall, I loved this album.  And not for nothing, but the production on this album was brilliant.  Now, i thought that would be a one-off project between these two acts.  But Full of Hell and The Body are back.  And from the sound of it, this is literally exactly what I wanted to hear from them, a much more experimental and unconventional sound.  Let's talk about this album!

This album starts off with “Light Penetrates”, and The Body and Full of Hell are actually really taking their time with this very ominous and noisy intro.  it really has me on the edge of my seat though.  Oddly enough, some of those bizarre synths are actually quite colorful.  Then we have of course the legendary shrieked vocals of The Body’s Chip King roll in, and all of a sudden I’m in this hazy, psychedelic and violent metal atmosphere that’s just not what I expected.  It’s twisted, but it’s also almost beautiful in a way.  Chip’s vocals clearly aren’t for everyone, and if you haven’t liked them in the past, this is going to be no different.  Now, While this may not be the prettiest metal track I’ve heard all year, it’s majestic and grand in it’s own vicious way.  Then of course we have the bizarre jazzy breakdown towards the end which is oddly really exciting and wild.  “Light Penetrates” just further proves just how groundbreaking these two artists really are.   “Earth is a Cage” is up next, and I love just how industrial and throttling this one comes off.  There’s not patient intro here, just pulsing drums, heavy guitars, and legendary Full of Hell shrieks of Dylan Walker.  It’s intense, nonstop, and most of all an all-out-assault on your ears.  But as straightforward as this one is, it still seems so far ahead of the curve.   It’s melodic almost in a really strange way, and this is certainly going to be one for your “Pumping Iron” playlists.  But like I said, as straightforward of a tune for Full of Hell and The Body this is, this continues to sound just so vast and vivid.  They chose the right freakin’ album cover for this one let me tell you, because this is one of the most oddly vibrant metal releases I’ve heard all year.   Then we have “The King Laid Bare”, and I really have to hand it to these two.  These atmospheres are just so by-the-books and obvious sounding.  But with these two highly experimental bands working together, they really have come through and created some of the most hellish atmospheres I’ve heard all year.  Like, this is literally early 90’s Nine Inch Nails level of hell here.   I love just how abrasive every instrumental comes off, there’s certainly nothing polished about this one.  And when the more pounding instrumentals come in, it just gets more and more brutal.  Also, I love how Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker is almost constantly just in the background screaming his head off, making this one even more tortured.  But one thing I really have to commend Full of Hell and The Body on, is just how intricate these instrumentals are.  There is constantly something happening, and seemingly endless instrumentals all coming off at once.  “The King Laid Bare” continues to be wild and incredibly entertaining.  “Didn’t The Night End” is up next, and I just love how ugly this one starts with these grimy vocals and pulsating instrumentals.  But the real star on this one is the pacing.  This is easily one of the most expertly crafted metal tunes I’ve heard all year.  It’s just so easy too, with those banging gongs in the background and these industrial synths.  It all just seems so obvious, but with these two modern Metal legends coming together for this, it’s near perfection.  This is one of the most chaotic tracks here, with each instrumental seemingly just bleeding into one another constantly.  The vocals all around sound absolutely tortured, like they’re trapped in Hell and begging for forgiveness.  But by the sound of everything around them, they aren’t going anywhere. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8cRs9rGWYE

    “Our Love Conducted with Shields Aloft” starts off the second half of this album, and the unbelievable pacing on this album continues with this very wicked, pounding intro that really gets me excited.  But that’s what makes The Body and Full of Hell so good, they’re masters at setting a mood.  The very vast instrumental palette of this album continues with these very wild drums that seem almost Jazz influenced.  But the sheer force of everything around them is enough to bring everything down (WAY down to Hell that is).  Now, “Our Love Conducted with Shields Aloft” isn’t as oddly melodic as some of the early tunes here, but it’s still as explosive and expressive as this album has been.  These two artists just seem to keep pushing forward, no matter what it takes to push the boundaries of just how noisy and brutal their music can be.  Now, I do wish this track was maybe a little more structured, but still, it’s solid, mostly because of just how wild and out of control the playing is. “Master’s Story” on the other hand ushers back in the pulsating beats and jazzy drums like we heard earlier, as well as Dylan Walker taking lead vocal duties again.  In a really bizarre way, it’s tracks like this that remain bizarrely catchy, and seriously memorable.  As far as an instrumentally dense track goes, this is one of the lighter ones here.  At least at the start, because eventually these ridiculously heavy guitars come crashing in, and instantly this one is an all-out Doom assault.  This album, however, is more than just two of the most wildly experimental current Metal artists.  It’s a celebration of every great Metal genre that’s come about in the last few years, and it’s oddly beautiful.  “Master’s Story” is just so damn intense, but it remains so vast and free sounding like this was an actual recording from another dimension.  Then we have tracks like “Farewell, Man”, which bring in a slight Sludge metal influence underneath all of this Grindcore.  But that’s beside the point, this track is as intense and as in-your-face as any other tune here.  It’s messy and tortured,  but it’s also still incredibly dense sounding with seemingly infinite instrumentals coming at you from every angle.  “Farewell Man” is another one for your “Pumping Iron” playlist folks, with its sluggish drums and crushing guitars.  But no matter how brutal this all is, I dare you to try and look away.  This album ends off with “I Did Not Want To Love You So”, and they haven’t made a single easy or accessible tune yet, so why start now?  This track right off the bat is crushing and noisy, and maybe the most experimental thing here, am sot to a fault.  I still think as far as these two go they still have done an unbelievable job with this track creating a truly twisted and ugly atmosphere to get lost in. I do wish this one was maybe a little more structured, but that’s really my only complaint.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXcdG4lKLtg

Rating: 8.4/10

Give  A Listen To: “Earth In A Cage”, “Didn’t The Night End”, “Master’s Story”, “Farewell, Man”

Genre: Grindcore / Industrial / Sludge Metal / Experimental Metal / Noise

Overall Thoughts:  Now I honestly thought we weren’t going to hear another collaboration between these two any time soon, let alone one that’s just so good.  The two bands first collaboration album was very good, but this new one blows it out of the water in every way.  It’s explosive and dense, with hellish atmospheres and truly twisted vocals.  But it’s all done on such a vast palette that makes this all almost psychedelic and strangely colorful.  It’s an intense album and not an easy listen.  But at the end of the day, this all just serves as further proof that Full of Hell and The Body are two of Metal’s most ferociously experimental and fearless bands.