Full of Hell/Nothing, When No Birds Sang (2023)

By Jack Rafferty

Full of Hell is prolific in their collaborations to say the least. They did three collab albums in 2023 alone. Of those three, When No Birds Sang is perhaps the most unexpected. Joining forces with Nothing, a shoegaze band, is a surprising dynamic, all the more surprising because it works extremely well. Full of Hell is no stranger to tempering their typically unhinged, caustic form of grindcore to new sounds (Merzbow, The Body, etc.), but their ability to maintain the brutality of their music while seamlessly blending with the slower, hazier atmosphere of Nothing is worthy of praise. The opening track, “Rose Tinted World,” especially stands out. Beginning with a bludgeoning tempo, the track fluctuates all over, closing in many samples of daytime television or news broadcasts looped over each other, producing a dizzying and eerie effect, then to sounds of distorted static like a forest fire, which leads directly into the clean guitars and vocals of the second track, like emerging from smoke into fresh air. The chemistry on display here is evident, and I really enjoyed the hell out of this one.