Full of Hell - Weeping Choir

Weeping tears of joy.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on February 21st 2021) 

Over the past few months, Full of Hell has been teasing the fact that a new album is on the way, and what better way to celebrate it than by reviewing the album that got me into them? Weeping Choir, the band's 2019 release was my introduction to their chaotic brand of deathgrind, and what made me fall in love with their sound as a whole. The sheer savagery on display left me in a daze the first time I experienced it. It also proved to be quite intoxicating, leading to me to giving the album multiple listens ever since.
Things start off on a blistering note with "Burning Myrrh", which, even after multiple listens, never fails to blow me away with its sheer intensity. It really helps set the tone for the aural violence that the band engages in on a regular basis. That being said, they do sprinkle in some tempo changes, like the section at 0:33. The final leg of the track wraps things up nicely, with its stomping riff and ghastly keyboard notes lending the song an unnerving atmosphere. Another notable track on the first third is "Thundering Hammers'', a song that firmly maintains a mid-paced gait throughout, and has plenty of headbangable riffs in it. The definite highlight of the song is its finale, where things get progressively louder and more chaotic, before coming to an abrupt stop.
The midsection of the album houses some more chaotic grind tracks, like "Aria of Jeweled Tears'' and "Downward", but what truly stands out is "Armory of Obsidian Glass", the song that made Weeping Choir one of my favourite releases from 2019. It's a definite outlier in the context of the album, seeing as it leans more towards a drone/doom character, but it offers a pleasant change of pace from the chaos that we've been subjected to up to this point. It's slow and atmospheric, with its choral backing vocals (courtesy of Lingua Ignota) punctuating Dylan Walker's raspy shrieks, adding a feeling of despair to the mix. The song maintains its dirge-like pace for the first 2 thirds, before the band ramps things up for the finale, giving this absolute behemoth of a song the ending it deserves.
From that point forward, things go back into more grinding dissonance. Tracks like "Silmaril" and "Ygramul The Many" offer more blistering riffs that are bound to make one's head spin. But the true standout from the final third is "Angels Gather Here". It's what encompasses Full of Hell's penchant for experimentation with sounds that not many would associate with grindcore. It's a song that ebbs and flows between crushing riffs and noisy feedback, and even has a short industrial beat at 1:44.
The lyrics on this album are quite notable for how well written they are, something not often seen in grindcore. The band writes about strange and outlandish decaying landscapes (Burning Myrrh, Armory of Obsidian Glass), religion (Thundering Hammers, Aria of Jeweled Tears) and otherworldly concepts in an abstract and poetic manner, that is only further enhanced by the ferocious vocal performances on display. There are a lot of vocal styles being used throughout the album, ranging from raspy shrieks to pig squeals, the latter of which are primarily used as backing vocals to give extra "oomph" to certain passages.
The production, courtesy of Kurt Ballou, is also quite good, fitting this style like a glove. The guitars are loud and distorted, grinding their way through everything, while the drums have a massive and pummeling sound that drives every rhythm forward. The mixing is also quite good, though I am a little disappointed by how the bass seems to be mostly absent and can't be heard, which is a shame because it could've added another layer to the chaotic cocktail that's on offer here.
Another shortcoming of the album is the fact that some tracks, specifically “Haunted Arches” and “Rainbow Coil”, didn't leave much of an impact despite the fact that they stood out in the album. The former felt a bit like “by the numbers” deathgrind, while the latter was just a noise track, which I don't believe is where the band truly excels. I would've enjoyed it more had they made an attempt to inject it with more grind. It can be argued though, that it primarily serves as a transition between "Thundering Hammers'' and "Aria of Jeweled Tears", so take that as you will.
Weeping Choir is an album capable of pushing a subgenre forward to new, unexplored areas. It shows us a band that is very much in their element and has their artistic vision fully in view, unwilling to compromise on it. Fingers crossed that their upcoming album will continue this upward trajectory we've been seeing for the past few years.
Highlights: Burning Myrrh, Thundering Hammers, Armory of Obsidian Glass, Angels Gather Here

Rating: 88% 

  

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