You Can Be My Wave

Does Full of Hell ever take a break? The Maryland extreme metal outfit proves to be the most prolific band in the genre right now with yet another release following up 2024's Coagulated Bliss as well as a collaborative album with Andrew Nolan. With the sheer volume of output, you'd think the band may encounter an issue with quantity over quality. However, since I caught back up with them in 2023, everything I've heard has been quite solid. This new mini-album, Broken Sword, Rotten Shield, is no exception. Like Coagulated Bliss, this collection of tracks further demonstrates that Full of Hell are metal chameleons; incredibly capable of touching on many different styles with a consistent level of execution, and having it translate into a cohesive work instead of a heavy hodge-podge.

The album kicks off very strong with the title track. It covers so much ground that it feels much longer than its 1:44 runtime. The band mixes relentless grindcore passages with hellish, death metal riffs before breaking away in the second half for a distinctly British heavy metal sound. They eventually come full-circle with more grindcore blast beats to close out the track. Corpselight switches things up with cybernetic, dark industrial instrumentation. Dylan Walker's wretched screams are soaked in delay and reverb, to the point where you cannot escape from the dread and terror. Knight's Oath reduces the extremity, opting for a more hard rock presentation as far as the instrumentation goes. I find the guitars to be really intriguing on this track. All the modulation and overdubbing creates this somewhat trippy, saturated blanket. There's also a lot of variation in the mood as you move from one passage to the next. Chord progressions at times sound sour, melancholic, noble, or downright hateful. The final track, To Ruin and the World's Ending, may be my favourite track on account of its slow, doom-filled nature. The end crushes as we get the sustained droning of fuzz guitars and those reverb/delay soaked vocals that I loved on Corpselight make a return.

You can argue that Full of Hell isn't reinventing the wheel, or taking these sounds to new heights. But still, there's something to be said for consistently coming out with solid projects that deliver so much stylistic variety. My theory is that by willingly seeking out collaborations with other artists (some expected, some surprising), Full of Hell has collected so many tricks of the trade. By integrating them into their solo-billed projects; they are able to set themselves far apart from 'meat and potato' metal acts. Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is just the latest demonstration of how successful they are in this endeavour. If we're lucky, it may not be the only demonstration in 2025.