Chuck Schuldiner Project

Friday, August 15, 2014

Reviewing Full of Hell @ Jam 24/7: Rusty Lawnmower Edition



Delaware is the middle-of-fucking-nowhere.  I've lived here all of my life, and there is no better way to describe it.  There is, then, perhaps no better representation of Delaware than Jam 24/7.  A tiny-ass venue packed into the back of a garage unit, it is a small and homey place that allows for patrons and bands to mix and mingle, providing an atmosphere that likens more to a house show than a proper booking.  You'd never imagine that when you roll up and park in this dingy little storage complex with three of your best friends that you're going to be tossing a tennis ball with the vocalist of one of your favorite underground death metal bands.  After paying for our tickets, all that was left was to wait for the first band of the night to kick it off.

There are two types of local bands that open shows in Delaware: carbon copies, and hidden gems. Delaware grindcore outfit Wojtek, to my disdain, happened to fall in the category of the former.  Their set opened with unintelligible harsh vocals that interrupted the amorphous blob that was the shrieking of their guitars.  It likely was not any help for them (or any of the bands of the night, for that matter) that the sound system seemed unable to handle the strain of harsh noise.  Although I found them relatively uninteresting, their set tore off the lid of a relatively docile summer evening and threw the crowd (and the show promoter) into a frenzy.

Next up was the Baltimore, MD based powerviolence act Sleep Disorder.  Their set consisted of raw as hell, rampaging punk, which was notably accented by the band's aesthetic - specifically the absence of one of their guitarist's strings (and his choice to play his instrument with a beer bottle cap).  Interestingly enough, the band featured Tyler Carnes, who performs vocals for underground death metal act Noisem, and his brother Billy.  The placement of the band on this set only served to up the ante and unsettle the crowd, which was granted sporadic visits of pit violence that built the tension for the evening and led wonderfully into the next act.

At this point in the night, Ides was scheduled to play but had not yet arrived.  Tyler spoke to the show promoter and received the go-ahead to play durings Ides' set time.  Noisem were the first band of the night to feature a true punk-friendly environment, despite their genre classification.  Having seen Noisem only two weeks prior in Philadelphia, I knew what to expect.  However, the maneuverability of the venue allowed them to surprise me with their energetic, frenetic death metal glory all over again, with Tyler half performing, half running the pit (and jumping from a speaker on to my head about two times).  Their skin-shredding solos only served to fully shatter whatever calm had been left up until that point in the night and allow the tension to bubble to the surface with a fantastically violent pit, even if it was plagued on occasion by the drunken stupor of the show's promoter.

Next up was Ides, a thoroughly satisfying hardcore act hailing from New Jersey.  Let it be duly noted that this band is not to be fucked with - within ten minutes of arriving at the venue, their barely-five-foot female vocalist unloaded the contents of her stomach on my buddy Jack's shoes as she screamed, pushed, and shoved in the pit, and followed it up afterwards with an encore in the parking lot.  Their sound was very distinguishable from the other opening bands, with the steady, calculated riffing of an up-and-coming hardcore act planted like a flag amidst the sea of death metal and grindcore.  Their no-fucks-given attitude got the crowd jumping, swinging, and running, not pausing for a moment to allow breath to be drawn.  It was refreshing to see this sort of variety on the set, allowing for some good old-fashioned hardcore dancing and a short break from the  "shred-your-face-off" intensity that the rest of the bands had brought so far.

Following Ides was Artificial Brain, a death metal act representing the NYC.  I have to admit, up until now my musical taste has been primarily laser-focused on hardcore and drone metal, and though I had become immersed in the violent glory that is Noisem, few death metal acts have truly gripped me.  It was with mild interest that I dragged myself in to witness the first half of their set (while simultaneously attempting to navigate the five-person circle pit that had formed).  In all honesty, their musical prowess was undeniable.  The exhale growls their vocalist seemed to pride himself on were bone-chillingly inhuman, and had I discovered them before this set, I am sure that I would have been much more engaged.  However, the band was relatively a stagnant presence on a stage that had been, up until now, run by energetic front(wo)men, which dragged down the quality of their set a notch.

The final show for the night was Ocean City hardcore punk/grindcore quartet Full of Hell.  This band had captured my attention a few months ago with their 2012 split with Code Orange Kids, embodying the sheer bare-bones, grinding violence that is hardcore punk at its finest.  Vocalist Dylan Walker, one of the most mild-mannered and kind human beings, completely shifts gears as a performer.  Dropping into a stance akin to a human spider, he weaves back and forth with sheer hatred behind his penetrating gaze, challenging anybody to disrespect their surroundings.  The feedback-prevalent set served to provide a pervasive sense of discomfort that pushed anybody listening towards a slow descent into madness, which manifested itself with one of the most violent pits I have yet seen in my ten year history of show attendance.  With an abundance of headbanging, fist pounding, head-smashing glory, Full of Hell rained beautiful chaos.



There is not much that can be said that can summarize a night full of friends, beer, and violence.  To call it "fun" would be a disservice, reducing each individual aspect that made the bill great into one all encompassing and bland summation.  What can be said that provides closure for such a night?  I suppose the state of my body as I'm writing this would be a great testament to the energy of yesterday evening; I'm bruised, my neck is causing me a migraine, and my feet feel as if they've been run through a rusty fucking lawnmower.  Party on.

Find them on Facebook!

Sleep Disorder: https://www.facebook.com/sleepidisdis
Noisem: https://www.facebook.com/NoisemBaltimore
Artificial Brain: https://www.facebook.com/ArtificialBrainMusic
Full of Hell: https://www.facebook.com/fullofhell

6 comments:

  1. Technically I puked after our set... Yelling in a hot, crowded room is not kind on the innards. :) Cheers for the review though!

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  2. yo unfortunately it is not all ages but like an idiot i forgot fliers,

    Sete Star Sept, Tercer Mundo, Lotus Fucker, The Headies and 12 more bands tomorrow at 1984 and Oddity Bar in Wilmington. 530pm, 8 bucks to get into both, 21+

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  3. "I did not inhale" - Bill Clinton.
    Artificial Brain's vocalist does not use inhale growls.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the correction, never heard exhales with that force.

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