Give or take about a year and a half ago, Full of Hell and Merzbow released a collaboration album simply titled Full of Hell & Merzbow. Even with some mixed response, the album was almost everywhere, as it was a blend of grindcore and noise, just touching on the brink of insanity and fusing it with a bloodthirsty rage. Now Full of Hell have teamed up with sludge metal act The Body for another collaboration, and the results push the human psyche into dark and disturbing places. Whereas the Merzbow project could be likened to a physical assault, this project with The Body is more cerebral and telekinetic in how it will break you down. Granted there are physical aspects to the album, but the damage done stays present in your mind.
With the previous collab, Full of Hell & Merzbow, it catered to the fans of Full of Hell while infusing it with Merzbow’s noise elements throughout. It’s interesting to note that when you look up the CD, it comes up as “Full of Hell & Merzbow.” The case with this new collaboration, however, is that it’s The Body and Full of Hell. If the album with Merzbow was Full of Hell letting Merzbow in on the writing process of Full of Hell songs, then One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache is The Body allowing Full of Hell to collaborate with them. This isn’t a Full of Hell album, first and foremost. Granted it’s a collaboration, but it is more in line with The Body’s work. Full of Hell fans may be disappointed to hear that, but the band’s sense of insanity meshes for something avant-garde, even for The Body.
Let me make this clear. though: One Day You Will Ache is not an album for everyone. It is, in all honestly, almost an album not for me. If you don’t like The Body, you surely won’t enjoy it, since it’s an extension off their core sound (I found similarities to No One Deserves Happiness, in particular) and you should be prepared going in knowing that. One of the lead singles, “Fleshworks,” is more accessible than most of the songs, as many of them feature feedback, harsh sounds, and borderline white noise piercing your ears.
It is, in a sense, an expression of deranged insanity and isolation, or performance art with but without form. The Body vocalist Chip King handles the majority of the vocals, as his high, sharp falsetto cuts through the swirling vortex of chaos, with interjections or additions by Full of Hell vocalist Dylan Walker. Walker may not be on the forefront of the vocals with this experiment, but he is credited for the electronics and noise on the album, giving shape to most of the songs. Guitars and drums (Both programmed and acoustic) are present, as King and The Body drummer Lee Buford split guitar and percussive duties with Spencer Hazard (Who also contributes noise aspects) and David Bland.
But the stand out guy, and maybe it’s the bass player part of me coming out, is Brandon Brown, whose bass playing (when prominent) hits you. It hits hard at times drives the entirety of a song forward. I can only imagine it in a live setting with these songs, in which the bass would literally pass through one ear and out the other, shaking every part of you in between. It’s not virtuoso playing, but when it’s perfect, it’s perfect.
Even with it leaning in The Body’s style most of the album, tracks like “The Little Death” or “World of Hope and No Pain” showcase Full of Hell’s presence, despite a strong presence of King on the songs. Tracks like the former do an excellent job showcasing the variety of sound on One Day You Will Ache. Even with how far out in left field this album is, it’s great to notice how the two groups were able to convey such different sounds across ten tracks of avant-garde insanity.
One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache is a very, very difficult album to review, and just as challenging to listen to if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Even then, it’s not vacuous, but dimension-shattering in its effect and throws you out of reality and into insanity. Not for everyone and at the farthest point from conventional, this is an album that will be discussed throughout the year for pushing artistic endeavors instead of capitalizing on the simplicities that can be found in both grindcore and sludge metal. I can’t envision myself listening to it for fun, like Full of Hell & Merzbow back in 2014, but there will be points throughout the year where I need to sit down and remind myself just how insane this album truly is.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_pSD78lzOQ[/youtube]
