Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, the top song goes to Full of Hell’s “Doors to Mental Agony.”
Of all the heavy bands we cover on Heavy Consequence, Full of Hell are arguably the most prolific. Not only have they released a steady stream of albums under their own name, but the group — helmed by vocalist Dylan Walker since its inception — has also worked in parallel with other artists across the heavy music sphere. These collabs know no bounds — from noise acts like The Body to Philly shoegazers Nothing.
This is worth mentioning because it’s proof that Full of Hell, in some capacity, are always making music, always creating. It’s an involuntary artistic reflex at this point, and a track like “Doors to Mental Agony” is the sonic equivalent of breathing.
Measured doses of smeared industrial noise rock delivered with the aggression of grindcore. Walker’s screams percolate beneath the surface, reminding us of the human element among an otherwise sinister palette of synthesized harshness and mechanized riffage.
Honorable Mentions:
Mat Ball (of BIG|BRAVE) – “Billows of Light”
Like Full of Hell above, Mat Ball is an architect of sound, molding massive soundscapes with the tones of an electric guitar as the guitarist of BIG|BRAVE. If anyone is allowed to call their solo works simply Amplified Guitar, it’s Ball. It’d be just as apt to label him a guitar painter. A piece like “Billows of Light,” hailing from Ball’s second full-length opus Amplified Guitar 2, has more in common with the abstract expressionism of Rothko than, say, doom metal. Think Loren Connors collaborating with Sunn O))), and you’ll land pretty close to what Ball is conjuring here.
Exhorder – “Wrath of Prophecies”
Exhorder are one of the best kept secrets of the vaunted early ’90s US extreme metal scene. Unlike their many death metal counterparts, Exhorder were more influenced by thrash — especially Pantera and Sepultura — and their 1990 album Slaughter in the Vatican is considered a cult classic of the genre. On Friday (March 8th), the band released its second album since reemerging in 2017, Defectum Omnium, and eerily, it sounds just like the Exhorder of old. Snarling vocals, groove-infected thrash rhythms, and that punkish hint of Pantera. Album opener “Wrath of Prophecies” is the obvious launching point and spearheads the group’s latest full-length.
Purest Form – “Self Destruction”
The spirit of early NIN and Godflesh — and a little Garbage — is channeled into the two-minute pummeler “Self Destruction,” the latest single from newly formed L.A. harshers Purest Form. The seething vocals of Madison Woodward cut against metal riffs and the deliberate stabs of a vintage drum machine — the industrial icing on top. Close your eyes and it’ll take you back to those after-hours episodes of 120 Minutes.