Full of Hell - Garden of Burning Apparitions

I’m completely unaware of the output of Full of Hell, only first learning of them when vocalist Dylan Walker was a part of the noise supergroup Sightless Pit. I really had no idea what I was getting into when I listened to “Garden of Burning Apparitions”, and while I think there’s a lot to admire about this album and that I’m sure a bunch of people will enjoy this record, I’m not one of those people.

I enjoy a lot of heavy, ugly, and noisy music, but grindcore is just something that I’ve never really been able to get into. I don’t know what it is that stands in my way from enjoying that kind of music, but even with Full of Hell’s infusion of death metal I just can’t connect with it, and not because it’s hard for me to listen to or anything, mind you. There’s clearly a lot of of skill and talent in the group - they’re playing very technical riffs, insane blast beats, and ugly larynx destroying screams are at play throughout this project (I actually really enjoy Dylan’s vocals in Sightless Pit). It takes a lot of skill to perform music like this, and “Garden of Burning Apparitions” is full of insane, noisy, raw, and visceral deathgrind for it’s twenty minute runtime - and I think that might be why I don’t connect with it, or grindcore in general. Not the abrasive music itself - I love plenty of intense albums - but the fact that it’s so constantly on 10 the entire. It’s always loud, it’s always complex, it’s always noisy. You’re getting blasted by noise but there are no moments where you feel any of its impact. In a way, it being so constant practically cancels itself out.

I’m glad that Full of Hell fulfill their promise of being full of hell, and this might be something I enjoy more in a live setting. But “Garden of Burning Apparitions” just isn’t the kind of heavy music I gravitate towards, and while I know that this is probably a great listen if this is your flavor of extreme music, I just don’t think it’s for me.

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(Btw - thank you everyone for 700 followers! I really appreciate all the love this site has shown me over this last year, I really did not expect to have this many people interested in this thing that I did for fun, especially in such a short amount of time. Really the only thing keeping me sane in 2021 is reading fantastic reviews and chatting and getting to know all of you awesome people, and I’m so thankful that everyone has been so kind and supportive and enjoys what I do. Thank you all for everything!)