Full Of Hell / Primitive Man Suffocating Hallucination

As far as extreme metal goes, there are few currently active bands that embody being true to themselves as much as Full of Hell and Primitive Man. Both bands have had a crystal clear vision throughout their respective discographies, never willing to bend to the ebb and flow of musical trends. As such it makes complete and perfect sense that both artists would team up for a collaborative effort that plays to their combined strengths, and the aptly titled Suffocating Hallucination is a fully realized version of each band’s heaviest and harshest elements brought to life.  It’s a towering inferno of crushing death and doom metal that absolutely nails the feeling of everything burning down around you.

For those who may be uninitiated, Maryland’s Full of Hell have been an ever-evolving and shifting force from the blackened metallic hardcore of their first full-length, Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home and onward, consistently upping the ante when it comes to the intensity with each new release. They’re also no strangers to collaborating with like-minded peers, having released full-length efforts with renowned Japanese Noise master Merzbow as well as bleak experimental sludge band The Body. Meanwhile, Denver band Primitive Man have consistently put out some of the most sonically crushing and emotionally devastating releases the doom metal/sludge genre has frankly ever seen, channeling absolute despair and misery into pure, unrelenting intensity that is certainly not for the faint of heart.

While in the past Full of Hell have used their collaborative efforts to explore a more experimental side of their music, Suffocating Hallucination ends up feeling more streamlined, focused on combining both artists’ core sounds into one volatile force. This is further bolstered by the production from Andy Nelson at Bricktop Recording Studios, known for his work on a myriad of projects in the hardcore and metal scene including Gridiron, Jesus Piece and Weekend Nachos to name but a few. He lends a sonic punch to the material that truly manifests as two of the heaviest bands in extreme music assaulting your senses at once.

Almost serene moments like the opening half of the final track, “Tunnels To God” feel even more hard-hitting when it reaches the boiling-over intensity of the song’s back end, with melodic guitarwork that still hits with sledgehammer intensity.  It brings to mind the heaviest moments of early Neurosis or Cult of Luna albums on steroids, with the vitriol and venomous vocals that both Ethan Lee McCarthy and Dylan Walker have become known for fully matching that intensity of the rhythm section, pushing everything to its limit sonically.

Both Full of Hell and Primitive Man traffic heavily in atmosphere, and there’s certainly an all-encompassing bleakness in tone that radiates through every moment of this record. Ironically, midpoint song “Bludgeon” almost feels like a space to breathe with it’s 26-second runtime of straightforward intensity when compared to the 4 dense, lengthy doom metal songs that anchor the front and back ends of Suffocating Hallucination. There’s a level of despair here that I’ve only heard matched by the likes of doom/sludge legends such as Dystopia, Khanate and Noothgrush. It’s not easy to nail the bleak atmosphere the aforementioned bands bring to the table, and the execution of it on this record is laser-focused.

Bottom Line: It takes a special kind of person and a certain mood to be drawn into the heavy, bleak atmosphere that the best death and doom metal bands can bring about, but for those who love that corner of extreme music and the classic records it’s spawned, Suffocating Hallucination is a record that will leave you coming back for more consistently. It sure as hell isn’t for everyone, but that’s kind of the entire point, isn’t it?