FULL OF HELL – Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home

Maryland's Full Of Hell are faced with an interesting dilemma on Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home. They are caught in between savagery and artistic, ahem... hell.

I've been walking around with this album in my stomach for a long time trying to articulate how I feel about it. And this is a good thing. Writing it off quickly would have meant it didn't have enough interesting attributes for me to go back to. Blowing smoke up its ass after one listen would do this review a disservice. But what I'm left with is an album that's lacking in certain areas but it's eagerness and passion drags me back to it. So lets look under the hood shall we.

Amongst keywords that come to mind when discussing this album are: early Earache and Peaceville records. Late '80s early 90's crusty death metal. Good ol' Dismember, Grave, Carnage etc. Grindcore. Early and mid- '90s "evilcore." Lost and Found record's In Crust We Trust compilation. Dystopia. Black metal flirts. East coast hardcore. Noise. Intense and brutal dual vocals. Right here you got the ingredients for total devastation and ugliness. By the same token it's clear that this young band is trying to find their sound in the world of extreme music. So although Roots of Earth... sounds undecided it furthermore depicts a band that regardless of the band members' young age and inexperience they are searching for something substantial. They respect and appreciate the history and pillars of extreme music. So don't go thinking these are some messageboard warriors that picked a uniform one day and lazily decided to be an Integrity type of band or Botch clones (to name a few beaten to death uniforms). Full Of Hell look beyond that.

The intent to decimate the listener is clear. And it works because even for an old fuck like myself, there are moments herein that make me wanna hurt myself. Album opener "Pile of Dead Horses" is a prime example of this. It's simple, nasty, ugly and with enough drive to make you not care about your well-being. It's like fucking Dystopia and Terrorizer in a blender. Grind your teeth you must. "Endless Drone" is a perfect successor, following similar lines and now I'm picturing questionable concert behavior from the crowd's point of view. What a banger.
"The Bed is Burning" continues with the evil sounding hardcore meets crust unpleasantries. Ugly chords are afoot and the riff progression sounds a bit more contemplative. Doomy single-string riffs come into play and will reappear later on the album. The vocals have entered new realms of torture and I fucking love it how they are coming unhinged and damaged. It's beautiful. Three songs deep and no complaints.

Inexperience, youthful excitement and its cons... Songs like "Rat King" (regardless of its killer final part), "Dregs of Pluto" (in spite of its black metal/crust cocktail), "Black Iron" (where east coast crossover hardcore gets a nod) are too predictable and hurried for their own good. The noise elements found throughout the record get their own podium in "The White Mare" but don't serve the album well in general and its (noise) function is unclear. Its artistic merits fall flat but Full Of Hell's handle on noise fits when mixed into their regular songs.
After a bit of a lull the album picks up again. The title track brings back the depression and blackness of Dystopia but the vocals are the show-stealer. I've actually been lucky enough to witness the singer force those out of his neck and it was painfully glorious. Shivers. "Pisces Legs'" similarity to other moments on the album gets broken up by a twisted clean vocal bridge and music which smartly ties into "The Oars are Broken." This due of songs gives off a Amphetamine Reptile/Today Is The Day/Swans vibe that's not very compelling in the hands of Full Of Hell but a interesting reprieve from everything else. Their love for sludge/doom metal is fully realized on the album's last number.

Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home is an exciting and spirited effort by a band you want to get familiar with because at this rate they are going to be turning stones and heads and blazing their own trail before long. This album is all the evidence you need. Some flaws notwithstanding, extreme music is in the hands of young guys like Full Of Hell and not armchair critics such as myself. And that is a comforting. [A389]
- Birkir Fjalar