Full Of Hell have been a staple of the extreme music scene for a good fifteen years now, well known for their relentless sound, tireless work ethic and propensity to collaborate at any opportunity possible. The band have five studio albums, five collaborative albums as well as countless EPs and Splits under their belt. The last project, When No Birds Sang in collaboration with Nothing, was released mere months ago in December 2023, yet somehow, the band are already back with their sixth studio album Coagulated Bliss.
‘The last year especially… the faucet was kind of clogged with COVID stuff. We knew the collaborations were going to come out in the beginning and end’, lead vocalist Dylan Walker tells us. It didn’t stop with just the collaborations though, a surprise split came in the summer with underground psychedelic powerviolence innovators Gasp, only available physically whilst the band were on tour: ‘that split was one of those things where those guys are our heroes and we’re like: “fuck it, let’s just ask them”. It wasn’t even a long plan. We’re lucky, it was a cool year.’
Artwork has always been an incredibly important part of Full Of Hell, whether album art, liner notes, tour posters or show flyers. The band’s collaborative ethos spills over into all aspects of their presentation: ‘So we approach art in the same way, we have been at least for about 10 years. The thing for me that’s most important [is] we don’t hire an artist and tell them exactly what to do’ Dylan asserts. ‘Something I’m figuring out over the years and I’m pretty firm with this nowadays, is I don’t want to be super hands on on every little detail. I think that’s going to ruin whatever I’m trying to make. Maybe that makes us a little easier to work with? Usually when we hire the person we’re not asking for revisions, it’s not really our thing’ he says with a grin.
‘For the last bunch of records that Mark McCoy did, the entire process was giving him the lyrics and telling him what the record is about. That’s it. What he made was what the art would be and fortunately we’re huge fans. The album cover that everybody loves from our discography is Trumpeting Ecstasy- ’, for good reason. A striking monochromatic high-concept painting from Mark McCoy of a nun with fire in place of their face. It has become an iconic piece album artwork in the extreme music scene since 2017: ‘When I saw that album cover I didn’t like it. My first 30 seconds was like “fuck, this is not us at all!”
A shocking revelation when that artwork is now so intrinsically linked with the bands image, but Dylan clarifies his initial reasoning: ‘I hate on the nose anti-Christian stuff, it’s just so fucking wack. Nobody wants to hear a band like Full of Hell be like “Fuck Jesus” because it’s a big deathcore thing and like we’re not Deicide. If I want to hear some actual satanic shit, I’m gonna listen to war metal or some really nasty, actual satanic shit. I didn’t want Full Of Hell to be on the nose like that, because we’re not. I [personally] never would have made that decision ever, but it was such an important decision that we stuck with it in retrospect. I found my own interpretation in it. I think it’s important to involve these people to help us figure out who our band even is, you know? We got to a moment with Full of Hell where we felt like it was time to move forward in a completely new way’.
A statement that has clearly manifested in a multitude of ways, but expressly obvious when first seeing the new artwork for Coagulated Bliss. ‘Brian [Montuori, Coagulated Bliss album artist] was super important. With Brian, I’d known him since early Full of Hell, we played some shows with his old band. He’s a prolific painter, I’ve always loved his style. I’ve really liked how it turned out’. A wholehearted embrace of colour and vivid imagery, in a way it’s almost overstimulating in its visual chaos and clearly intended as he confirms: ‘Oh, definitely, that’s a big one. That’s a really important theme on the record, overstimulation and overindulgence’. It makes for a drastic difference from the bands previous artwork choices for studio albums, yet just as striking and visually indicative of the metamorphosis the band have undertaken.
Dylan continues, elaborating on his relationship with Montuori: ‘I remember early on having a discussion with Brian on the phone, just excited that we were finally working together after all these years. He thought, since I was entering fatherhood and we’re in our 30s… it was time that I came home and wrote a record about where I’m from. We didn’t know what to expect with the art panels. He had the lyrics and photographs of where we grew up and he just ran with it. I live in Pennsylvania, which is more like the Appalachian Mountains. The rest of the band all live in Ocean City, Maryland. They’re born and raised, that’s very unique, classic beach town vibes.’
‘I think he got particular inspiration, as did I, from our drummer and his family. He’s just had a really unique upbringing. There’s just certain iconography that came from where he lives. His grandfather was a sculptor and he made these crazy sculptures in their yard. Big ones. He passed some time ago, but those sculptures are just kind of mouldering. It was never going to be dreamed up. It was just so perfectly tailored for our band’ he tells, punctuated with a subtle chuckle. ‘It’s pretty personal art. It’s really stuck with me and kind of gave me an electric jolt of inspiration. I felt like, “Why hadn’t I done this with more intention in the past?” These are things I know so much about, I don’t need to try to tap into a thing for this’.
In the week before the album’s release, the band unveiled the title track as the next single alongside a music video that feeds further into the thematic vibes of Coagulated Bliss, presented like flashes of a home movie distorted by nostalgia and time. ‘That video was made by a friend of ours that I’ve known forever [Shot/Directed/Edited by Will Mecca]. He’s the coolest person. He loves a lot of the same media that we like. We’re really into Harmony Korine (US auteur filmmaker). He had this film called Gummo. When it came out, I felt like it was like so quintessentially gross Ohio, little town America. It’s a fucked up movie. Will’s style is all analogue, he lives in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is pretty destitute, it’s prairies and racists and it’s economically depressed. We got friends down there but it’s a different world. It’s really in line with the album and I’ve been wanting to have him do a video for us. It just happened to be that his art style was going to be perfect for this record.’
“Garden Of Burning Apparitions, on paper, was meant to be this kind of record”
Each Full Of Hell release is informed by previous works, having an impact in one way or another, an additional tool in the kit so to speak. However it is rather hard to assess the specific impact: ’unfortunately there’s not a super one directional answer to this. On one hand, the Nothing sessions were really big for [the rest of the band]. I think it just showed them there are sometimes things that are going to suit the song that might not be in your immediate wheelhouse’.
When No Birds Sang was by no means business as usual for everyone involved, as Dylan elaborates: ’the funny part about my role on that record… I screamed, I did some of the singing and I provided some of the samples. I was there for the songwriting, of course, but because there were other vocalists involved, like on a heavy level and it wasn’t like a “full on metal” record at all. I feel like my role was a little diminished [in that regard]. I can’t [normally] listen to our own records. I’m never going to listen to them. It’s impossible. But the Nothing record, I’m a little more removed from it. I’m proud of those guys, ‘cuz I was just far enough away from it where I was like, “damn, good job guys”. I was pretty psyched for them and happy to be part of it.’
Speaking on what he drew from those sessions specifically though still came with a satisfying experience and plenty to add to the toolkit: ‘For me personally, I think [it was] working with a producer like Wil Putney. He’s a genius, tracking vocals with him was really cool. He really wanted to see the lyrics and wanted to hear the vocal rhythms and had good opinions. Just working with anybody outside of our wheelhouse that [can] contribute in one way or another. So yeah, there’s a non answer.’ Dylan laughs and explains further: ‘everything impacts what they’re doing. People like Nicky (Domenic “Nicky” Palermo) and Doyle (Martin) from Nothing, being around them is certainly a good influence. It’s just a different perspective [but] a similar approach. We’re not that different, honestly. They’re growing moments, all the collabs in different ways and they contribute to the end product.’
There are a litany of interesting stylistic changes with Coagulated Bliss, one of the most notable being the bands wholehearted embrace of melody across the album in their own unhinged way, marking a significant change from a focus on noise exploration. Even when the band introduced saxophone as an additional instrument on Weeping Choir and Garden Of Burning Apparitions it was exclusively to keep thickening the walls of abrasive noise. Yet with their sixth album Sam DiGristine has managed to squeeze in a riff or two for the saxophone as well. ’No skronking’, Dylan chuckles, ‘I liked the idea of there being some melody. It works for me’. He adds: ‘I think it’s really interesting to see a band that’s capable of sounding really extreme try to do the pop thing. Maybe a little more Sonic Youth, a little more Melvins-y. But they’re still animals, they’re still Neanderthals.’
Related: Full Of Hell – Coagulated Bliss | Album Review
As it turns out though, the change found with Coagulated Bliss has been a long time coming, as Dylan recounts: ’From my perspective, Spencer (Hazard, guitarist) has been trying to write this record for years. Garden Of Burning Apparitions, on paper, was meant to be this kind of record, but we were so anxious, depressed and like fucked up feeling. What came out was more claustrophobic, because those guys are pretty genuine to themselves’. As to be expected for an album conceptualised and brought to life during the Covid pandemic.
‘Those guys have been huge noise rock fans for as long as I can remember. All of us have. I think they wanted to bridge the gap somehow. In a Today Is The Day kind of way, but I just don’t think they were ready to do it. They were just on some other shit at that moment. They’ve progressed as musicians so much. The instrumentation [has] just gotten better… They’re learning to peel some stuff back in a way. All the elements are still there, but things are a little more impactful when there’s a little more variety. We’re not a grindcore band, we’re like the fake “art grind”. We’re a bunch of different things. It’s important that we kind of take advantage of that. It feels exciting to me to see what they’re going to write next.’
You can feel it, even from the opening moments of “Half-life Of Changelings”. The band’s core of cathartic and nihilistic grindcore still features significantly, but the introduction of variations, the maturation of their stance towards songwriting shows. ’I’m really, really psyched about the direction, I’ve always felt it’s really important that there’s a lot of peaks and valleys. Moving in one direction the whole time just kind of dulls the impact for me. I always loved when things would kind of flatten out and get really quiet and there’s a lull you know? Doing the records with The Body and Primitive Man was really important to me. Primitive Man is almost exclusively slow and we play fast, so it was just an interesting combination for me. It’s exciting from a vocal standpoint too. I’m finding new ways to make them better and more extreme. It’s so interesting to have a couple new voices and then try to apply them to this more mid tempo stuff. There’s a lot of flexibility with vocal rhythms and cadence.’
Even when it comes to their own studio album Full Of Hell can’t help but collaborate. This album drew Ross Dolan (Immolation) and Jacob Bannon (Converge) for some choice vocal features: ‘I’m really big on guest spots’, Dylan states with another grin, ‘obviously, if you know about Sightless Pit [Power-Electronics/Industrial side project between Dylan and Lee Buford of The Body], that’s where I don’t have a leash. I’m just like “I want someone on this one and this one this one” I love it. To me, it just adds to the collaborative feeling on the record.’
Clearly though, with Full Of Hell being a completely different beast, there are a few more chefs in the proverbial kitchen: ’Thankfully, I have a partner, Spencer (Hazard), who reels that in a bit. I had a shortlist of guests I wanted for the record. I wanted all of them though. Spencer was like, “why don’t we stick to two?”’ he recalls with a laugh. ‘I thought of Jake’s spot and Ross’s spot as soon as I heard the demos. I heard Ross in “Gasping Dust” and I heard Jake in the in the “Malformed Ligature” section. It just sounded like it would complement their voices.’
“"We're always thinking about records that we really love and why we really love them."”
Each band has ties to Full Of Hell, as touring partners or artistic collaborators earlier in their career, as Dylan justifies why they were in mind this time around: ’Ross and Jake in particular are important to me. Immolation is probably my favourite death metal band of all time. Those guys are heroes to us. Meeting them, I couldn’t believe how cool they were as people. You don’t always expect that from a death metal band that’s like a tenured, classic band. I wouldn’t put it past them if they were a bunch of assholes, you know? But they’re just the most down to earth, cool guys. They’re the real genuine article. The same thing goes with Converge. I mean [they are] two bands that influenced pretty much everything Full Of Hell does, especially organisationally, ethically and how you carry yourself. Converge have been so cool to us over the years. The only member we haven’t had on a record has actually been the drummer Ben (Koller). Nate (Newton, Bass) and Kurt (Ballou, Guitar and Production) played on Trumpeting Ecstasy a long time ago.’
Which begs the question, if it were up to Dylan who else would have featured on Coagulated Bliss?: ‘One of the ones that I really wanted was our friend Taichi [Nagura]. He plays in this band called Endon. They’re from Japan and like the most extreme band I’ve ever seen in my life! But we got Taichi on our next collaborative full length, that’s just been mastered, he has a whole track on that. There’s a couple other [collaborator choices] I don’t really want to mention because I still want to have them on records… just incase there is even a chance they would see it and be like “wonder why I didn’t get asked?!”’ he points out with a hearty laugh.
Even when the band were thinking of production they wanted to approach from a new angle, bringing in fresh blood in the form of Taylor Young (Judiciary, Jesus Piece, Cannabis Corpse, Cruelty), whilst retaining their essence of familiarity. ‘We went back to our friend Kevin (Bernsten) who we’ve recorded with since the early days. He’s like a perfect engineer. His records sound huge, totally insane’. Bernsten officially handled the production for their 2011 debut Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home and 2013 follow up Rudiments of Mutilation. He’s also credited with recording a multitude of the bands releases. ‘We had a certain approach from Kevin, that was more what we listened to, our world of music. You get a base level of dynamics from Kevin, then we sent it off to Taylor, who is an incredible engineer and comes from a slightly different mindset.’
‘We’re always thinking about records that we really love and why we really love them. There are records that come from raw ass musicians that [are] produced by someone special once and you’re just like “holy shit, this is the best one”. I’m a huge Leviathan fan, all of his records sound fantastic. But there’s just something with Scar Sighted, where it sounds like a massive fucking studio record. That’s cool to hear from black metal artist who, I don’t even think his productions ever been particularly raw, but it’s raw compared to the rest of the metal world. Portal are [another] good example. Their production is always different on their records. The early ones have some of my favourite tracks, but the production is so raw. Then when you get to Vexovoid and Ion, different production on both, but both are huge. It’s such a unique thing to be able to hear that kind of style presented in that way. It’s just cool, you hear the dynamics and stuff. I think about that when we’re talking engineers.’
Whilst not as deep rooted as their ties to Bernsten, Dylan tells of how they initially forged a relationship with Young: ‘We did the seven inch [Aurora Leaking from an Open Wound], I forget what year, 2021 maybe. That was literally just stems that we’d recorded with Kevin for a collab record with a dub guy we were working on at the time, which is actually done now, but those stems [initially] got rejected. We liked the riffs and all the components were there for songs. So we ended up sending it to Taylor, he mixed it and it just sounded like really heavy. It’s skull crushing to me in a way that was exciting. We wanted to try that for the LP.’
‘He works with a lot of really hard ass aggressive shit. He’s really into loud death metal. I like to say we got the kind of like, piecemeal, nice subtleties from Kevin. Then we send it off to Taylor to get it jacked up in the best possible way. I say that as a fan of everything he does. I think it made it really, really heavy. I like to clash perspectives too. It was cool that they worked together. The idea was just to get a balance. I think as much as we like really, really raw production, I don’t necessarily know that it suits the band. I think there’s this weird, intangible middle ground where I want the production to feel big, but also still have some grit to it. It’s a paradox. So it’s kind of hard to nail that. But I think Taylor and Kevin did a pretty good job. I really like the mix.’
With the band already gearing up for a heavy year of touring, starting with a US run alongside Brutal Death Metal legends Dying Fetus, there is only one question that remains, when will Full Of Hell return to the UK to show off Coagulated Bliss live? However the question is slightly complicated by the fact they were only here last September… ‘This year, we’re not coming over. We’re giving it a little bit of a rest, but definitely next year. It’s like, one of our favourite places in the world to play. It’s literally just gold the whole time. I’m not just saying this, we’ve always had this opinion since the first time we went. We’ve been as often as we can. The only reason we don’t come more often is because I want the shows to be exciting and not lose their novelty. I would go twice a year if I could. It’s awesome.’
‘The first time we played in England, we were really really young. We just had one seven inch. You remember a band called Throats [acidic blackened hardcore/powerviolence]? We played their last show in London. I just remember actually selling stuff to people. Meeting some dudes that were doing noise, playing powerviolence that are still our friends today. The UK just has a really interesting extreme music scene. It matters there, I remember noticing that. Obviously grindcore is big, but also noticing even in the Hardcore scene, I remember just being like: “holy shit, NAILS is like fucking mini Slipknot over here”. People actually like music that’s at least a little extreme. That’s always been our experience in the UK. We feel like it’s a second home a little bit. It’s gotten to a point where it’s so special to us to tour the UK, that is why it’s sparing. I need it to always be great because it’s like it’s a treat, you know?’