The Body Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light Review

105264

Two of the more than intriguing heavy metal acts in the current game, Providence, Rhode Island sludge-metallic ring The Trunk and the Maryland-via-Pennsylvania grindcore band Full of Hell have already collaborated on a full-length studio album. Last year's One 24-hour interval Yous Volition Ache Like I Ache saw the ii bands come together in exactly as chaotic a fashion as anyone who had heard the respective bands would expect, if non exceeding those perceptions, peaking with a cover of Leonard Cohen'due south 'The Butcher'. Indeed, both bands have even released their own records individually during that time, sticking to their more attuned sound than their experimental collaboration, in The Body'southward No One Deserves Happiness and Total of Hell'south 'Trumpeting Ecstasy'.

That first collab perhaps leant more on The Trunk's more traditional sludge equally opposed to Full of Hell's mind-bending electronically indebted grindcore. Ascending a Mount of Heavy Calorie-free their second collaboration, sees things swing the other fashion, with an even more psychotic experience than previously imagined. The immediate noise one is greeted with on opener 'Lite Penetrates' pretty much tells you everything you lot need to know about this journey.

The crucial new element to the two extreme metal band's second collaboration, however, comes from a somewhat side-stepped source, in Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt fame. Another Providence, Rhode Island resident, Chippendale's diverse guises have existed in the aforementioned spaces every bit The Torso, and while Lightning Bolt are more known every bit a 'racket' human activity than a 'metal' one, there is a clear influence of that genre apparent, especially on comeback album Fantasy Empire and its lead unmarried 'The Metal E'.

As ever with Chippendale'south elusive, idiosyncratic drumming style, nosotros get corresponding music that transcends easy genre definitions. Neither The Body nor Full of Hell are your traditional acts as it is, so that fierce avant-garde spirit works perfectly with Chippendale's eccentric playing. On 'Our Love Conducted with Shields Aloft' for instance, we go the mad, free-form, jazz playing that is synonymous with Chippendale over a buzzsaw hum and some, frankly terrifying high-pitched vocals that simmer somewhere at the pinnacle of the mix. Meanwhile 'Main'south Story' following on afterward it, is a comparatively more than controlled performance, relatively speaking, creating a tense, industrial mood Trent Reznor would be pleased with.

At the record'southward all-time, the added electronics give a bounciness similar to Death Grips. Given drummer Zach Hill is a close contemporary of Chippendale and share a similar turbulent pulsate style, this shouldn't be as well surprising, completely different vocal styles aside. Tracks like 'Globe is a Cage' and 'Didn't the Night End' for instance have the same playful-yet-hard-hitting mode that ane might look out of the punk/hip-hop grouping pulsating, swarming electronics, drums and all. Meanwhile, Chip King of The Body's vocals pierce eardrums providing ane of the few 'high-ends' on offer.

There is no denying, however, that Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Lite is no easy listen. This shouldn't come as likewise much of a surprise from 2 recent masters of the (extreme) heavier genres, only at times the projection, it appears at least, is insisting to be as infuriating every bit possible. In many places, this record sounds and feels like a migraine captured on tape, and that is non a pleasant experience, nor is information technology meant to be. Dissimilar the more luscious, shoegaze influence that's pervaded Black Metallic in recent years, this feels similar an absolute rejection of that, being as difficult and painful to feel every bit possible. As a result, The Body & Full of Hell's second collaboration album together frequently feels like a real challenge and non for the faint-hearted when it comes to music – 99% need not apply.