Before we proceed with this review of Weeping Choir (Relapse), the latest in a long series of attempts at deafness by Full of Hell, I’d like to make a statement: more saxophones in metal. Buried in the cacophony of notes that is the latter half of ‘Ygramul the Many’ is what I perceive to be sax fighting its way through the mix and I am all in for those wonderful sounds. Between Rivers of Nihil masterfully incorporating it into last year’s Where Owls Know My Name and now this, I need more sax in my life.

Unfortunately, the sax doesn’t make a return on Weeping Choir, but what is given in return is possibly the most intense half hour of your life. ‘Burning Myrrh’ and ‘Haunted Arches’ rattle off with such torque and greasy blast beats that you may want to stop by the emergency room for concussion-like symptoms. The ever so subtle ‘Thundering Hammers’ gets the lead foot off the gas pedal, but it swings a main riff that tickles like a crowbar. Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Noisem and Full of Hell? Obviously, there’s something in Maryland that takes metal and hardcore and twists it into something much crueler and more unusual.

And while speaking of unusual, apparently Weeping Choir is the type of album that’s too mean for a traditional intermission. ‘Rainbow Coil’ allows for the listener to catch their breath, but it does so while surrounded by cold industrial noises and beats that rattle like machine gun fire. Full of Hell is reluctantly willing to decelerate the chaos again in the slowest of burns that is ‘Armory of Obsidian Glass.’ Here the boys put away their blasts and indulge in nearly seven minutes of doom-soaked riffs and ghostly background chants.

Calls for more sax aside this is another strong assault on the senses and decency from one of metal’s finest underground practitioners.

8 / 10

HANS LOPEZ