Genre : Doom, Noise, Sludge, Drone, Grindcore
Released : March 3rd, 2023
Label : Closed Casket Activities
FFO : Full Of Hell, Primitive Man, The Body, Cult Leader, KEN Mode
Full Of Hell and Primitive Man are both household names when it comes to pushing the boundaries of modern extreme metal at opposite ends of its spectrum, so when this collaboration was announced, I was rightfully exhilarated at the idea of hearing the nightmarish worlds of these two titans of extremity collide.
And yet, even after multiple plays, "Suffocating Hallucination" fails to truly grab my attention or stick with me and leaves me somewhat a bit underwhelmed compared to the expectations I'd built for this record given the potential of this collaborative effort.
Where Full Of Hell are better know for their blistering and relentless high-adrenaline mix of grindcore, hardcore, powerviolence, death metal and noise; Primitive Man have instead built a reputation for being one of the most soul and skull crushing doom metal acts of recent times, taking their time to drag the helpless listener into the bottomless depths of their sonic abyss.
Although it seems like a collaboration of both of these styles would perhaps not make that much sense, the common ground lies in the fact that both bands heavily implement industrial noise to create even harsher soundscapes within their music, with Full Of Hell also having proven in the past (see tracks like "At the Cauldron's Bottom" and "Armory of Obsidian Glass" featuring Lingua Ignota) that they are more than capable of also exploring the slower-paced stylings of doom metal in their chameleonic approach to extreme music.
So why is it that I can't help but feel that both of these bands combined strengths don't necessarily shine through in unison as much as I think they could have on this collaboration?
Well, for starters, "Suffocating Hallucination" is pretty much entirely a doom/noise/drone album with the exception of the twenty-five second long grindcore burst, "Bludgeon".
Opener "Trepanation for Future Joys" does a good job at introducing both bands's joint exploration of the unfathomable depths of sludgy doom metal, and most notable is the contrasting dialogue between Dylan Walker's (Full Of Hell) piercing shrieks and Ethan Lee McCarthy's (Primitive Man) bellowing growls.
"Rubble Home" continues this exploration, leaning more towards the noise side of things by highlighting the importance of the dissonant and harsh soundcsapes being borne out of that experimentation, leaving only Dylan Walker as the sole guiding voice through the opaque darkness this track unfurls.
However, after "Bludgeoning" 's detonation of wicked energy, this is where the album looses its pacing for me with the next (approximately) twelve minutes (the entirety of "Dwindling Will" and the first half of closer "Tunnels to God") being solely harsh ambient drone, which, in total, roughly comprises of at least a good quarter of the overall record.
The problem for me isn't necessarily the inclusion of noise-drone, but rather the way it fits in the album's continuity and what it has to add to it, which in my case wasn't all that much, instead of what I assume was meant to be an immersive sense of prolonged discomfort.
I find it regrettable that in an album that only goes slightly beyond the thirty minute mark, a quarter of it is spent on rather uneventful soundscape-crafting that doesn't add much substance to the album instead of continuing to amalgamate Full Of Hell and Primitive Man's distinct styles into one single abhorrent musical entity.
That being said, one of "Suffocating Hallucination"'s biggest strengths lies in the fact that it does come across as a genuine collaboration in which all members of both parties were fully involved in the creative process as an ensemble, rather than simply having one band feature on the other's material.
Which kind of serves as a counter-argument to my previous statement, I'll admit, but had this been labeled under some sort of supergroup side-project, my expectations might not have been so demanding and my criticisms not as specific.
After having let their ambient experimentations linger (do you have to?), "Tunnels to God" picks up the pace where it had last been dropped once the track reaches its midway point with a crushing send-off, more akin to Primitive Man's style as the track eventually fades into a lasting spell of feedback, reminding listeners that if they didn't plan on having their eardrums abused, they were in the wrong place.
Now, despite my criticisms about the lack of intermingling between the respective bands styles on this new effort; "Suffocating Hallucination" is by no means a bad record so don't let my own personal opinion deter you from checking it out if you have still yet to do so, as it is still very likely to be a noteworthy release in extreme music within the year 2023.
