“Chaining my soul to the in between.”
Internal processing of the announcement of the Full of Hell and Primitive Man collaboration took place in my gut rather than my brain. Gods, this was going to be heavy. Some sort of vortex of distortion leading to a collapsed black hole; an analogue demon captured and bound between gain stages; a gospel demonstrating that amplifiers can speak in tongues. Suffocating Hallucination delivers exactly this: it’s both bands unleashing their trademark styles of noise, sludge, doom, and grind-metal.
It’s always tough to discern whose input was whose on such collaborations. Usually, it’s futile, as either band could write the other’s records for them (it would actually be very funny if they did this). My examination of this aural artefact leads me to believe that the bands operated completely together, facing one another in the room, when hammering out these songs. The best evidence is in the drums – on Suffocating Hallucination there’s literally a different drummer in each ear. At times on “Trepanation For Future Joys“, they match one another closely, like two ventriloquist’s puppets mimicking one another in eerie cadence. They’re best told apart in the build-up and tear-down moments, which feel extra chaotic as you’re pulled between two subtly different rhythmic centres.
When it comes to the rest, it’s harder to pin sounds on any one band: I don’t think I have to turn in my noise-music card if I can’t guess how many guitars or noise stations are at work creating the tapestries of chaos that drape Suffocating Hallucination. The trademark sound of Primitive Man‘s ‘churning’, meat grinder guitar noise is ever-present, and the sharp feedback breaks that populate Full of Hell’s speedy songs are weaponised in the more riff-like moments. The vocals from both bands hold nothing back, retching from primordial depths to duet in hellfire. It’s no surprise that much of Suffocating Hallucination is straight up feedbacking, lurching noise. Both artists dedicate much of their tracks to noise alone, without drums, and Full of Hell even collaborated with Merzbow, the Pulse Demon himself. The sheer quality of the recording must be praised, as every foul frequency has been preserved without clutter. You can find other noise-focused metal records out there (particularly lo-fi or industrial ones), but no others will really bring you in the performance space like this one does.
Side A is the attempt to make relatively normal songs within the intersection of both group’s styles. Opener “Trepanation For Future Joys” is a slow sludge epic, bristling with feedback that burrows into your very bones. It clearly lays out the intent of the collaboration, and features the most compelling vocal moments, including some pedal-tweaked ones later on in the track. On lead single “Rubble Home”, the first three minutes build toward the record’s fastest section. Initially, just one drummer blast-beats, the second gradually adding more and more chaos until the tempo drops once more to bathymetric lows. “Bludgeon” is a short track which concludes “Rubble Home”’s drones in powerviolence style. Overall, it’s a tight set of songs that don’t outstay their welcome, except in the way that they sonically assail your ears. But you wanted this, right? You might be asking yourself this as you turn the record over.
On side B, the approach feels different, as the bands conjoin souls and enter cosmic space. First comes “Dwindling Will”, a worthy dark ambient interlude. It’s essentially structureless, yielding to no greater concept, but is by no means filler. It’s biggest surprise is that it never goes off, and it’s a break you’ll appreciate. The following “Tunnels to God” signals a real sea change. For its precious first minute, there’s a synth pulse that feels pleasant; the euphoria of a brain starved by oxygen slowly realising it’s about to go to hell. And hell opens with an ultra-fuzzed bass guitar, four minutes in, beside an unnervingly normal drumbeat and, eventually, sheer guitar noise. The lead guitar picks between three mournful drones, and the rhythms lash out in a to-and-fro motion. It, of course, ends back in the studio, with fulmic feedback functioning as sonar, as if the bands were hunting the last viable tweeter in the room.
The songwriting is kept reasonably simple in order to focus on the putrid textures at play, and presumably, so the bands could conduct themselves and communicate under the prevailing sonic conditions. So, except for a few fast moments, don’t expect Full of Hell’s grindcore to have won out over straightforward sludge riffing, or simply, noise. To my taste, “Tunnels to God” and “Trepanation For Future Joys” lack the last few songwriting ideas that might have actually seen them break a hole in reality. In fairness, this spartan approach creates a more genuine union of their styles, honouring both band’s strengths. Suffocating Hallucination is a unique noise-metal record that won’t ever be made again until the seven angels sounds their trumpets.
8.5/10
Suffocating Hallucination is out this Friday, March 3rd, via Closed Casket Activities. The record can be pre-ordered here.