Relapse Records has always had a knack for scooping up the cream of the crop from among the most extreme bands. With a few exceptions, they are usually spot-on in whom they deem worthy of a record deal. FULL OF HELL is no exception. It is actually hard not to still consider them a "new" band, but perhaps I am just showing my age. "Garden of Burning Apparitions" is the band's fifth studio album since forming in '09 and is no less viscerally engaging than their previous four.

Perhaps the best analogy to use when attempting to describe the first track, "Guided Blight," is to liken its opening to walking face-first into a flaming furnace. The immediate rush of pyromantic fury is all-consuming, almost suffocating. This is Grindcore done right.

"Murmuring Foul Spring," the third track, is yet another high mark. Beginning with an almost ambient feel, chaos soon takes over revealing its inherent predatory nature at the 0?45 mark with a steady pulse of rapid palm-muting. When the music descends deeper still into the inferno, a supreme breakdown arrives to resolutely smash any hint of monotony. The secret to FULL OF HELL's success is transitions - clever, mood-shifting, momentum-altering, the band never allows the listener enough time to catch one's breath before moving to their next idea.

Yet another secret behind the allure of FULL OF HELL is their overall sound.  Sure, it is dense, oppressive, a violent beat-down to the listener, but it is also distinctly original.  Somewhere in the midst of NASUM, old DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, and pure Crust is the FULL OF HELL style. Over the years, the band have curtailed a stunning approach that combines that brutality of the classics with an incisively biting Punk ethos. In other words, FULL OF HELL is the Grindcore band with the most expansive vision.  The world is theirs for the taking and the production manages to expertly toe the line between pure aggression and a heightened sense of identity.

The sixth track, "Eroding Shell," is another high point of the record comprised of stabbing riffs effectively slicing through the tender meat of one's senses. "Urchin Thrones," the ninth track, features a hauntingly eerie outro that tends to linger long thereafter. Perhaps the most compelling moment of the album, though, is the following track, "Industrial Messiah Complex". Commencing with one of the band's more focused riffs, the journey the song takes travels through myriad twists and turns including a part that is blatantly melodic for a change of pace.  The 0:55 mark is where all hell breaks loose as the band introduces a riff straight from the early '90s MORBID ANGEL arsenal. Such a blatant Death Metal section mixes things up perfectly just as the obvious Punk-influenced trek taken in the next track, "Reeling Tunnels".

A FULL OF HELL album is the antithesis of boredom. Being a longtime fan of Grindcore, it is satisfying to know these guys are properly advancing the torch. While some might decry their style as best fitted for the attention-span-challenged, I maintain that FULL OF HELL is on the very cutting edge of Extreme Metal altogether. Evidently, the band has done their Metal homework as clearly proven by their devastating arsenal of riffs that span the gamut of styles while still adhering to that innate anarchy that flows like vital blood coursing through the veins of the music.