FULL OF HELL-ROOTS OF EARTH ARE CONSUMING MY HOME

Today I decided to write about a record that jump started the now towering force that is Maryland's Full Of Hell. From a rising band in hardcore/punk circles to one of the most revered bands in the extreme metal scene, their first full length "Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home" found the band crafting a record that was firmly entrenched in DIY punk ethos, while also exploring extreme music influences that they would dive much deeper into on subsequent releases. And while their sound would go on to evolve and become more and more extreme with each release, they have remained true to their roots and as such have not only pulled in many new listeners with each album, but kept the majority of their early fanbase as well.

From the opening unnerving noise of the opening song "Pile Of Dead Horses" that segues into an intense blast of fast hardcore, you can tell that Full Of Hell hasn't ever been a band to fuck around. The 11 songs on "Roots.." are an amalgamation of many different heavy genres, including black metal, grindcore and powerviolene, all fused together and delivered with the urgency of hardcore as the backbone. It's a sound that many bands before and after have tried to varying degrees of success, but with this album the band really knocked it out of the park. The outright viciousness of this material is not to be understated, and the album is relentless in it's outright intensity from the opening to the very last note. The very appropriate production hits with just the right amount of grime and filth while still hitting hard, a perfect match for the songs themselves and their bleak lyrical and musical content.

There is absolutely no doubt that in the 9 years since this album was released, Full Of Hell have evolved musically in leaps and bounds with every release thereafter, most recently with their newest full length, the stunning Weeping Choir. But "Roots.." will forever stand as a reminder that they have been a very special, unique band for many years, always a standout in the sea of their peers and elders alike. Before COVID-19 enveloped the entire world in chaos, the band had a planned residency at the infamous Roadburn Festival, where they planned on playing a few full album sets as well as a set of earlier material from "Roots..." and other releases. Here is hoping that in the future those sets can still come to fruition, and will be documented in some form. This album remains one of the first of many statements to come from one of extreme music's best current bands, and is an essential record for all lovers of metal and hardcore.

Thanks for reading.

INTRODUCTION/SNAPCASE-END TRANSMISSION

My name is Eliot and I'm starting this blog because I miss writing about music regularly. I've been writing for various blogs for over a decade plus, most recently Toxicbreed's Funhouse (RIP). I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and it's not like we're able to do much else besides stay at home right now, so now seemed like a good time. I've got no real aim with this other than to write about what I love, so hopefully you'll read and if you give your time to that, thank you. With that out of the way, here is the first album I'm going to write about..

SNAPCASE-END TRANSMISSION

Snapcase were/are a hardcore band from Buffalo, New York. I used both were and are because they technically have been a bit more active in recent years, playing bigger festivals like This Is Hardcore and The Fest as well as a few one off shows including the recent resurrection of the "California Takeover" alongside Earth Crisis and Strife. Pretty sure they've been playing a new song and there have been talks of recording, but it's hard to say if that will ever actually materialize. So, for now, we'll consider End Transmission what it has been for the past 17+ years: Snapcase's divisive final LP.

And when I say divisive, I say that because from my experience in talking to people about Snapcase or generally reading reactions to posts about the band/from fans of the band on social media, End Transmission seems to be the worst received of their albums. Now, for transparency's sake, I will say that aside from hearing Caboose off a Victory Records sampler, End Transmission was actually my first full introduction to Snapcase in the full album format. Maybe that has a bit of bearing on how I feel about this record, but I also personally feel that it's incredibly underrated and also was extremely forward thinking and ahead of it's time when it was released in 2002. Thematically, the album is both socially a politically charged much like their earlier material, but also conceptualized around the idea of a dystopian future that's plummeted towards the resurgence of fascism. If that sounds painfully relevant to you right now, you're not alone. Take these lyrics for "The Beat", the third song off the LP for instance:

"The year is twenty seventy-one.

One drum by law has just begun to beat.

You'll be informed on what you'll be,

And correspond if you want to live.

Everywhere, people move to the cadence of just one drum.

Time is here, of what we feared, synchronized by the prosperous ones.

Working class, caste system, adjust.

Pushed down, down, down.

Executive hands are red again,

But correspond if you want to live."

It's easy to see from this where the band was going, and while obviously based on fiction considering the year mentioned, serves as a stark warning for the steadily rising police state that we find ourselves in now.

Recorded at the infamous Salad Days studio in Baltimore, End Transmission also marked a pretty big change in sound for the band. While still a hardcore band at heart, this album marked a shift in sound that moved way more towards post hardcore than any of their previous and much more straightforward releases. There's definitely still quite a few songs on the album that are full on ragers, but they're mixed in with  songs like "Ten A.M." and "Synthesis Of Classic Forms" are slow burning, brooding songs that build up just to break back down again, and represent a very big change from a band that up to that point had always been known for lyrically forward thinking but musically energetic and straightforward hardcore songs. It was a change that I think many people were unwilling to accept back in 2002, and that many do not care for to this day. For me personally, End Transmission has always played out like an epic post hardcore masterpiece, throwing you into the mood it sets both lyrically and with it's sound with expert precision. It's a masterpiece of the genre that I truely think deserves much more appreciation than it receives.

Rather Snapcase do end up recording more material or if End Transmission ends up being their final full length album is yet to be seen, but it stands as a hell of a note for the band to go out on (I am aware of Bright Flashes, the remix/covers album that came out after it, but wouldn't consider it a mainline release from the band by any means). Either way, Snapcase will always have a legacy as one of the most intelligent and socially aware hardcore bands of their era, and in my opinion they paved the way for a lot of the more experimental elements that bands after them pushed. If you're unfamiliar with End Transmission or Snapcase in general, now would be as good a time as any to rectify that.

Listen to End Transmission:

Spotify:

Thanks for reading.