Monthly Metal Mixtape: October 2021

Happy Halloween, everybody. After missing last month cause time speed way the hell home, this month flew by too. Enjoy the cool days and changing colors with this pair of noisy records.

Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions (2021, Relapse)

Back in 2017, we at Change the Rotation put Full of Hell’s Trumpeting Ecstasy on our year end bracket. It was maybe a little controversial, as it’s open to argument how “punk” that record actually is. Regardless, some of us were huge fans and some of us kinda despised it to the point where those of us who were huge fans used it as a taunt/joke against those who weren't so enamored. Obviously, I fell into the camp of being a huge fan, which is why I’m bringing Full of Hell back onto the CTR radar to talk about their chaotically awesome newest output, Garden of Burning Apparitions.

Starting with a bang, or more accurately a throat-ruining shout, Full of Hell starts grinding away with the sub-minute “Guided Blight.” Full of shrieks and growls and grunts amongst a grind/death/powerviolence cacophony, we’re kicking things into high gear. If it wasn’t clear by now that Garden of Burning Apparitions is going to be an amalgam of every genre thrown into the blender to see what comes out, follow-up “Asphyxiant Blessing” hides nothing about the game plan. We get some atonal riffs, that sound like they’ve been gleaned from the Dillinger Escape Plan school of math(core), but somehow that leads smoothly into some drenching doom/death in the second half of the song, straight from the generation that grew up with those two genres fitting together seamlessly. “Reeking Tunnels” has some big time mid-paced punk/post-punk feels, while “Burning Apparition” also feels like a nod to their grindcore/hardcore/punk background. Full of Hell’s patented take on noise is present, both in the interlude-ish “Non-Atomism” and the masterful “Derelict Satellite.” The latter, one of two songs cresting three minutes on an album full of minute-long blasters, is full of gargling, feedback-driven squelches veering toward harsh noise and closes with these wonderful lines: “When burning shrapnel / Collides with our world / Utopia will rise to drown us.” There’s poetry buried under all the rubble of genres that were deconstructed to make this beast.

I get more death metal vibes in places, like the intense minute of grinding death that is “Eroding Shell” or “Industrial Messiah Complex.” Sometimes the low grunts remind me of bands like Obituary in all their unintelligible griminess. “All Bells Ringing” is another one of those tunes that cobbles together a ton of influences, from the clean, punk-inspired riffing at the start, to some death metal, to the chaotic grind/hardcore in the second half of the barely minute long song before ending with just a bit of noise. What comes next in “Urchin Thrones” is probably my favorite song here. Yeah, we start with a grind that’s familiar by this point in the record. About forty-five seconds in, the atmosphere starts dripping with some ominous electronics slowly building from the background, before absolutely devolving into John Zorn levels of avant-chaos.

So, how will you know which side of the great CTR Full of Hell schism you’ll fall on? Look back at all the genres and artists I mentioned. Do you think cramming all of that into a twenty-minute record and seeing what comes out is an enthralling prospect? If you answered yes, you’re gonna dig Garden of Burning Apparitions. Do you think that sounds like someone specifically orchestrated a soundtrack to your nightmares? If so, you’re probably not gonna be a fan, and get ready, cause I’m gonna gleefully tease you about listening to Full of Hell. – SteveO

Këkht Aräkh – Pale Swordsman (2021, Livor Mortis)

Over the past couple months, this has been the album I come back to over and over when my mind is scattered and stressed. It’s like a warm blanket. Music like this feels healing to me. The nostalgia is very strong with Këkht Aräkh’s bedroom black metal. Lead songwriter and only songwriter, Crying Orc’s take on the unmistakable sounds of second wave Norwegian black metal feel like hearing the genre for the first time. Something is so much softer here though. Not evil and not satanic, but just a little ghostly. The sounds are presented with themes of melancholy and dark romance cranked to eleven. A tinge of ol’ DSBM theatrics and a careful taste for the eclectic expressed in sunken lo-fi piano and clean guitar instrumentals, stand in huge contrast with the menacing nature of the black metal forebears. The album even closes off with a very simple melancholic piano and vocal piece that wouldn’t be out of place on a lo-fi bedroom pop record. If you like old, lo-fi black metal this record is for you. Personally I just love hearing an album in 2021 that uses this sonic palette that, as far as I can tell by interviews and research, is created by someone that isn’t a fascist! Imagine that! Since I really can never return to a lot of those old European bands for so many ethical reasons, it’s really nice to get some replacement music. It’s just so pleasant. – Mike Tri