Review
Full Of Hell
Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home

Over the past year or so A389 Records has put out a staggering amount of releases that sit just barely within the confines of metal and hardcore. For every label that insists on putting out breakdown heavy, mosh exercises there are much fewer that choose to stay outside of the simplicity of that.
Full Of Hell are one of the more recent signees to the A389 army. The Maryland based 5 piece do little to stay withing guidelines employing whatever they can to create a dark fucked up hybrid of metal and hardcore. Over the past year the band have released things that are fairly normal (a split with Goldust) and the obviously abnormal (a limited release harsh noise tape). Somewhere in between is where this, their debut full length, lies.
The band opens with an intro that hearkens back to the aforementioned noise project building layers of distortion one upon the other till it feels like the listeners head is caving in. This is the head clearing preparation one needs to go into this record. Each song builds slightly on this idea bringing in layers of metal (mostly of the blackened variety), noise, or just rage filled artistic hardcore. No song overstays its welcome sticking to short bursts throughout the band are able to keep the record moving forward without sacrificing their nastier tendencies.
Through standouts like "Rat King" that move with speed yet use lurching riffs to make it feel darker and more depraved or "Black Iron" which appears here in a re recorded form from their prior EP. The band stays in a darkened room between the hardcore and metal worlds. The recording itself lends itself to such a style as it feels gritty and dark without being impenetrable to the listener. The vocals help to bring the grim ideas to life as they occupy a more screeching black metal style that is rarely used in the hardcore community. this distorted vocal style makes the record that much more disruptive to the listener.
Rarely does hardcore in this day and age feel dark, dangerous or disruptive at all. Even more rare are the bands that can take those characteristics put them into their music and make a complete album that avoids boredom or smacking of art school reject bullshit. Full Of Hell have done something special here as they take their prior pieces and experiments to make for a style that while it may not be entirely their own, goes a long way towards making them stick out above those below.