Review: Full Of Hell – Broken Sword, Rotten Shield
Following up on an incredibly strong 2024—highlighted by album of year contender Coagulated Bliss and the sick collaborative insanity of Scraping The Divine—the new EP from Full Of Hell is much more broad and diverse in its sound. Despite the impression given from its lead single and general Noggin The Nog album aesthetic, Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is actually very diverse in its sound, for better and worse.
Two tracks in particular, the opener “Broken Sword, Rotten Shield” and “Lament Of All Things,” bring a distinctly more riff-driven sound to the EP. The former reminds me a bit of the trajectory Darkthrone took during their heavy-metal-crust-punk fusion era of albums, whereas the latter has a lot more beatdown hardcore DNA mixed with its traditional metal pedigree; it’s not a thousand miles away from modern-era Integrity in a lot of ways. On first listen I thought both lacked a certain spark that made it stand out in the way similar sounding Full Of Hell tracks in the past have, especially on the back of an album like Coagulated Bliss which is such a singular record. But on relistening, I’m hit much more by their quality, particularly “Lament Of All Things” which is the most rhythmically distinct track on the album.
“From Dog’s Mouth, A Blessing” had me excited at first with these barked, warbled vocals playing against these distant, acid-burn shrills ones. Combined with its more menacing, building pace, it makes you expect some massive fucking explosion or release, but ultimately just ends without any real development in 49 seconds. A very strange track, even moreso since I actually really liked what was there.
Of the two industrial, atmospheric tracks, “Corpselight” is the highlight, one that incorporates a lot of the band’s death-industrial lineage into something (relatively) sedate. Unlike its follow-up “Mirrorhelm,” “Corpselight” at least feels fully formed and complete. “Mirrorhelm” has different intentions, and attempts to be more of a disquieting mood piece but is, in my opinion, both too brief and too transient in its writing to really feel oppressive, reflective or anything much else beyond “a bit spooky.”
Black metal isn’t something typically associated with Full Of Hell, which makes the metallic-hardcore-black-metal fusion of “Knight’s Oath” stand out in the tracklist. Instrumentally, it’s much more melodic than you might expect but also surprisingly quite muted in its production, leaving it sounding oddly inoffensive for a Full Of Hell song. It’s ultimately a solid track, but I still feel like it fades out before it gets a chance to be something really special—this is odd, considering how great Full Of Hell are at making less-than-1-minute feel massive and developed. More than any other track, this song highlights Broken Sword, Rotten Shield‘s experimental, loose nature.
At over 4 minutes, it’s perhaps unsurprising that final track “To Ruin And The World’s Ending”—a collaboration with Japan’s Kruelty, whose 2023 record Untopia you should check out—is the most developed, fully-formed song on the EP. The slower pace and subtle death/doom influence help it stand out in Full Of Hell’s discography: a track that manages to be both oppressive in its funeral dirge riffing while also having an open, atmospheric quality in its second half. Compared to the more explicit atmospheric tracks like “Corpselight” and “Mirrorhelm” (while acknowledging those tracks are attempting to rely less on traditional structure) “To Ruin And The World’s Ending” feels so much more deliberate, vicious and confident in its mood and delivery. It’s easily the best track on the EP.
While not the strongest release from Full Of Hell, I’m always fascinated by these little diversions and left-turns the band puts out, showing us potential directions and avenues they might take in the future. Whether Broken Sword, Rotten Shield acts as a precursor to a full-length of blackened hardcore, to trad metal worship albums or a return to straight noise records, Full Of Hell remain one of the most interesting bands in extreme music.
3/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is out now on Closed Casket Activities.
