{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = Full of Hell & Merzbow | type = studio | longtype = (collaboration) | artist = [[Full of Hell (band)|Full of Hell]] & [[Merzbow]] | cover = Fohmb.png | alt = | released = {{Start date|2014|11|24}} | recorded = | venue = | studio = | genre = [[Grindcore]], [[noise music|noise]] | length = {{Duration|m=23|s=06}} | label = [[Profound Lore Records|Profound Lore]] | producer = Kevin Bernsten | chronology = [[Full of Hell (band)|Full of Hell]] | prev_title = [[Rudiments of Mutilation]] | prev_year = 2013 | next_title = [[Amber Mote in the Black Vault]] | next_year = 2016 | misc = {{Extra chronology | artist = [[Merzbow]] | type = studio | prev_title = Nezumimochi | prev_year = 2014 | title = Full of Hell & Merzbow | year = 2014 | next_title = Wildwood | next_year = 2015 }} }}
'''''Full of Hell & Merzbow''''' is a collaborative studio album between the American grindcore band [[Full of Hell (band)|Full of Hell]] and the Japanese noise artist [[Merzbow]]. The album was released on November 24, 2014 through [[Profound Lore Records]]. The CD version of the album was also packaged with a five-song, 35-minute bonus disc titled '''''Sister Fawn''''' that was described as an "extension" of ''Full of Hell & Merzbow''; it was later released in a digital format as well.
The album received mixed reviews from music critics, with many praising the collaboration between the two artists, however some noted that Merzbow's part in the album was minimal, and only apparent and successful on the album's two longer tracks toward the end: "High Fells" and "Ljudet Av Gud".
==Background and recording== {{Quote box |quote = We wanted to do a t-shirt as a tribute, just a Full of Hell rip off of the ''Pulse Demon'' album art. So we hit up Balazs to see if it was cool, and Masami was cool with it and wanted us to send him one. And from that point came the direct idea of doing a split, Masami wanted to do a split with us. Then soon after he changed his mind and it should just be a collaboration. |source = Dylan Walker, Full of Hell vocalist, Noisey interview<ref name="noisey1"/> |width = 25% |align = left }}
At a live performance in New York headlined by [[Phobia (band)|Phobia]], the members of Full of Hell, who were opening at the show, ran into [[Merzbow]]'s live drummer [[Balázs Pándi]], who was there to see Phobia.<ref name="noisey1"/> After the show, the band kept in contact with Pándi, who would send them albums he thought they should listen to; the relationship evolved into Pándi becoming their indirect contact with Merzbow frontman Akita Masami, which continued throughout the creation of ''Full of Hell & Merzbow''. Full of Hell vocalist Dylan Walker said, "The communication was definitely minimal with Masami. I don't think he speaks a lot of English, so I think Balázs [Pándi] has been really helpful for him."<ref name="noisey1"/> Full of Hell asked Pándi if they could have permission from Masami to release a shirt paying tribute to the cover art of Merzbow's 1996 album ''[[Pulse Demon]]''. In Masami's response, he proposed the idea of doing a split album, but later changed his mind and decided he wanted to do a collaboration album instead.<ref name="noisey1"/>
Merzbow sent the members of Full of Hell approximately 45 minutes of material for them to do with what they saw fit, and had very little contact with Masami during the writing and recording process.<ref name="noisey1"/> Knowing that some fans and critics wouldn't like the finished product, Full of Hell focused their attention on making an album Masami and Balázs would be proud of,<ref name="quietus1"/> and ultimately spent over a year working with the material.<ref name="noisey1"/> Walker said he specifically was inspired how [[Jamie Saft]] used Merzbow's source material on his 2006 album ''[[Merzdub]]''. On Saft's album, Walker said: "it was so soothing, and it was so cool that he'd be able to warp Merzbow into this new sonic territory; it was a dub album, but like a dub album in space. We hoped that we could achieve something similar by warping Merzbow into our kind of sound. And Masami was really happy with how it turned out so, y'know, naysayers be damned!"<ref name="quietus1"/>
Because of the varying frequencies present in the source material that Masami sent Full of Hell, the band decided to "map out" how they wanted to use it all.<ref name="noisey1"/><ref name="quietus1"/> Ultimately, they decided to make two separate releases that put different levels of focus on either of the two contributors to the project. For the first disc, ''Full of Hell & Merzbow'', weighted the focus as: "70% Full of Hell, and 30% Merzbow record, so much like a regular Full of Hell record with noise."<ref name="quietus1"/> Originally only available with the CD release of the album, the band included a "second CD hidden within the layout" of the album's packaging titled ''Sister Fawn'', which flipped the approximate weighted ratios, and as a result saw: "70% Merzbow and 30% Full of Hell. We did a lot writing in the studio for the second CD, it has kind of a [[Tribes of Neurot]] feel for the second CD."<ref name="quietus1"/>
In addition to collaborating with Merzbow, ''Full of Hell & Merzbow'' also features Kevin Morris on horns, and contains excerpts from [[William Rounseville Alger]]'s novel ''The Solitudes of Nature and of Man: Or, The Loneliness of Human Life'' on the tracks "Raise Thee, Great Wall, Bloodied and Terrible" and "Ljudet Av Gud."<ref name="linernotes"/>
==Reception== {{Music ratings | rev1 = [[Drowned in Sound]] | rev1Score = 5/10<ref name="drownedinsound1"/> | rev2 = ''[[Exclaim!]]'' | rev2Score = 8/10<ref name="exclaim1"/> | rev3 = [[Pitchfork Media|Pitchfork]] | rev3Score = 5.5/10.0<ref name="pitchfork1"/> }}
''Full of Hell & Merzbow'' was met with mixed reviews from music critics. Writing for ''[[Exclaim!]]'', critic Michael Rancic praised the album and scored it with an eight-out-of-ten rating. On the collaboration between the two artists, Rancic said: "The end result finds Full of Hell's explosive, breakneck powerviolence stitched together by Masami's squalls of squelches. Though Masami's contributions sound more like black holes than any kind of connective tissue, they're the dark matter that connects each song."<ref name="exclaim1"/> However, critics Joseph Rowan of [[Drowned in Sound]] and Andy O'Connor of [[Pitchfork Media|Pitchfork]] were less impressed with the album and gave it a five and five-and-a-half (both out of ten) respectively, citing too little of Merzbow's sound an influence as a major factor.<ref name="drownedinsound1"/><ref name="pitchfork1"/> Rowan said Merzbow, "seems barely present on the heavy tracks and only on two-and-a-half songs could I definitely point to what I presumed was his involvement,"<ref name="drownedinsound1"/> and O'Connor described the collaboration as "frustrating because it falls short of its goals, in part due to Merzbow's too-reduced role and that Full of Hell don't make up for the missing space."<ref name="pitchfork1"/>
While most reviewers were dissatisfied with the lack of Masami's influence on ''Full of Hell & Merzbow'', most critics did praise the album's longer tracks toward the end of the album ("High Fells" and "Ljudet Av Gud") that more noticeably featured Masami's signature noise. Rancic described these tracks as being "more abstract territory" and that ultimately "it's a good look for the band, one that hopefully becomes an approach they deploy again on future records."<ref name="exclaim1"/> Rowan compared "High Fells" to [[Sunn O)))]]'s song "Alice" from their 2009 album ''[[Monoliths & Dimensions]]'', describing it as "the best thing on the album," and also praised the following track "Ljudet Av Gud" as being: "much more like what I was expecting from the album."<ref name="drownedinsound1"/> O'Connor noted praised the doomy "High Fells" for "giving Merzbow more room to cast a wide shadow" and Full of Hell's restraint on "Ljudet Av Gud" for its "booming floor toms and drifting noise undercurrents."<ref name="pitchfork1"/> O'Connor also praised ''Full of Hell & Merzbow''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s bonus CD ''Sister Fawn'', describing it as a "much more satisfying listen than the actual record."<ref name="pitchfork1"/>
==Track listings==
===''Full of Hell & Merzbow''=== {{Track listing |title1 = Burst Synapse |length1 = 1:01 |title2 = Gordian Knot |length2 = 0:55 |title3 = Humming Miter |length3 = 0:43 |title4 = Blue Litmus |length4 = 2:05 |title5 = Raise Thee, Great Wall, Bloodied and Terrible |length5 = 2:28 |title6 = Thrum In the Deep |length6 = 2:42 |title7 = Shattered Knife |length7 = 0:52 |title8 = Mute |length8 = 0:33 |title9 = High Fells |length9 = 4:38 |title10 = Ljudet Av Gud |length10 = 5:43 |title11 = Fawn Heads and Unjoy |length11 = 1:23 |total_length = 23:06 }}
===''Sister Fawn''=== {{Track listing |title1 = Ergot |length1 = 5:16 |title2 = Merzdrone |length2 = 4:10 |title3 = Aphid |length3 = 8:14 |title4 = Crumbling Ore |length4 = 4:09 |title5 = Litany of Desire |length5 = 13:46 |total_length = 35:37 }}
==Personnel== Personnel adapted from CD liner notes.<ref name="linernotes"/>
===Full of Hell=== * David Bland – drums * Brandon Brown – bass, vocals * Spencer Hazard – guitar, vocals, percussion, electronics * Dylan Walker – vocals, electronics, percussion
===Additional musicians=== * Masami Akita <small>([[Merzbow]])</small> – electronics * Kevin Morris – horns
===Recording and artwork=== * Kevin Bernsten – recording at Developing Nations * Brad Boatright – mastering at Audio Siege * Mark McCoy – artwork, layout
===''Sister Fawn'' personnel=== * Masami Akita <small>([[Merzbow]])</small> – electronics, vocals, percussion, recording * Spencer Hazard – electronics, vocals, percussion, recording * Dylan Walker – electronics, vocals, percussion, recording
==References== <references>
<ref name="drownedinsound1">{{cite web| last = Rowan| first = Joseph| title = Album Review: Full of Hell - Full of Hell & Merzbow| work = [[Drowned in Sound]]| date = November 11, 2014| url = http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18532/reviews/4148490| access-date = May 25, 2015| archive-date = July 11, 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150711232441/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18532/reviews/4148490| url-status = dead}}</ref>
<ref name="exclaim1">{{cite web| last = Rancic| first = Michael| title = Full of Hell: Full of Hell & Merzbow| work = [[Exclaim!]]| date = November 21, 2014| url = http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/full_of_hell-full_of_hell_merzbow| access-date = May 25, 2015}}</ref>
<ref name="linernotes">{{Cite AV media notes| title = Full of Hell & Merzbow| year = 2014| type = CD gatefold| publisher = [[Profound Lore Records]]| id = PFL–146}}</ref>
<ref name="noisey1">{{cite web| last = Pessaro| first = Fred| title = Old Souls with Piercing Noise: Stream the New Full of Hell / Merzbow Collaboration| work = Noisey| publisher = [[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]| date = September 16, 2014| url = https://www.vice.com/en/article/full-of-hell-gordian-stream/| access-date = May 18, 2015}}</ref>
<ref name="pitchfork1">{{cite web| last = O'Connor| first = Andy| title = Merzbow / Full of Hell: Full of Hell & Merzbow| work = [[Pitchfork Media|Pitchfork]]| date = December 3, 2014| url = http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19972-merzbow-full-of-hell-full-of-hell-merzbow/| access-date = May 25, 2015}}</ref>
<ref name="quietus1">{{cite web| last = Cool| first = Toby| title = Meaningless Pain: An Interview With Full Of Hell| work = [[The Quietus]]| date = March 18, 2015| url = http://thequietus.com/articles/17448-full-of-hell-interview| access-date = May 25, 2015}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== * [https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/full-of-hell-merzbow Full of Hell & Merzbow] on [[Bandcamp]] * [https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/sister-fawn Sister Fawn] on [[Bandcamp]] * [http://www.markmccoyart.com/ Mark McCoy] — official website of the album's cover artist
{{Full of Hell}} {{Merzbow}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Full of Hell and Merzbow}} [[Category:2014 albums]] [[Category:2014 collaborative albums]] [[Category:Merzbow albums]] [[Category:Profound Lore Records albums]] [[Category:Full of Hell (band) albums]]