“Hermetic corners of lonely blackness.”
Naming no names, but there’s been much talk of bloated discographies of late. If you want a masterclass in being prolific in the right way, look no further than Full of Hell. Three full length collaborations in 2023 alone would overwhelm most bands, let alone launching the next year with a new LP, but Coagulated Bliss is living proof that the past year blunted nothin. With Primitive Man, they learned about ultra-slow tempos and absolute noise showdowns. Their split with Gasp brought the original powerviolence band back into the limelight and indulged in noisecaping. They were then ready to abandon all rules to work with shoegazers Nothing for When No Birds Sang, their most celebrated split yet. Each of these efforts has been a mutual learning experience for both projects, expanding Full of Hell’s palette and comfort zone, and – perhaps most importantly – created tidy and succinct records that waste none of the listener’s time.
It was after Where No Birds Sing that the band set to working on Coagulated Bliss, which becomes important context for the record’s direction. It’s an antidote to the longer structures and dizzying atmospheres of their 2023 output, returning to their hyper-focused style of powerviolence. I never thought I’d say this of a Full of Hell record, but Coagulated Bliss is distinctly “un-noisy” – it’s very carefully mixed, with guitars and vocals rendered in absolute clarity. It performs a healthy stylistic betrayal of their roots, making it distinct from the rest of Full of Hell’s output, but it’s not a full aesthetic inversion; this is in every way as fucked up as Trumpeting Ecstasy and Garden of Burning Apparitions. Perhaps this range makes the infernal moments even more so.
To match the record’s cover, there are some ‘bright’ and eager musical ideas at play this time around. Look no further than opener “Half Life of Changelings” for a sprightly take on deathgrind. Spencer Hazard’s guitarwork is irreverent, mixing his notes out like oil and water. “Doors to Mental Agony” stamps out a lurid, almost danceable groove, later bursting into powerviolence in stammering pluses. “Coagulated Bliss”’ riff is a cruel parody of traditional rock, thrust into the classic Full of Hell dimension to make your nose bleed in half a minute. “Schizoid Rupture” is another unusually bright powerviolence mover for circle pitting to. Juxtaposing Coagulated Bliss’ inclination for technicolour are Dylan Walker’s vocals, textured as if he’s been gargling iron filings.
It wouldn’t be Full of Hell without some auditory excursions, some of which are not as magnetic as I would hope. “Fractured Bonds to Mecca” is definitely fucked up, but doesn’t manage to sound cool whilst doing so; every percussive idea trialled in its two minutes starts to grate before it’s over. “Gelding of Men” also gets silly with its lurching riff, incorporating delays and foghorns; once again, I can’t quite get behind it. “Ladder of Divine Ascent” is a more effective, a six minute epic that takes what the band learned from Primitive Man and puts it through the lens of Coagulated Bliss. Bass feedback turns to dirge-paced beatdown with wretched vocals. An extra riff for the ending brings some much needed release, but it still doesn’t end up being as memorable as their other album centrepieces, like “At the Cauldron’s Bottom” or “Armoy of Obsidian Glass”. “Malformed Ligature” is an oddball closer as it cuts its tempo in half, and Samuel DiGristine drops the bass for a sax outro, closing out Coagulated Bliss on a note of blissful sonic confusion.
After four releases in the last twelve or so months, Full of Hell have still got it. Although plenty of its ideas that bounced off me, the attitude of Coagulated Bliss is well worth your full attention. It’s a lateral expansion of their discography as it widens (or wierd-ens) the style, and a vertical one too, as it matches the rest of their solo records in terms of quality. If what was stopping you enjoying Full of Hell was that they never got a bit silly, Coagulated Bliss is your chance to power-boogie.
7/10
Coagulated Bliss drops on the 26th April and can be pre-ordered here.