The Body / Full of Hell – ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’

Both The Body and Full Of Hell are no strangers to collaborative work. Rhode Island sludge metal duo, The Body, have teamed up with a number of artists including Thou, Krieg, and Braveyoung in the past. Blackened powerviolence band Full Of Hell released a stunning piece of art in 2014 with Japanese avant-garde pioneer, Merzbow. However, if you thought that any of these unions were terrifying enough, you probably aren’t ready for ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’.

From the off, ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’ is the aural equivalent to having you skin burnt off, and your teeth slowly pulled out. That may sound like a criticism, but for those who like challenging, uncompromising, and downright ugly noise, this album is a landmark release. Few albums feel as unsettling as this, and being tortured never felt so good.

The title track that starts the album is hail of frenetic blast beats, and white noise. The painful vocals shriek and shred through the mix, piercing your senses at every given opportunity. If you make it out of that alive, it blends into the ambient drum ‘n’ bass rhythm of ‘Fleshworks’, which itself sits perfectly next to a dystopian interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Butcher’.

The 40-second blitz of ‘World Of Hope And No Pain’ sees Full Of Hell push their influence to the forefront, with low-end vocals being applied next to screams bereft of any pleasantries. It compliments ‘Bottled Urn’, which is driven by The Body’s signature sound, filled with distorted 808 kicks rattling underneath an ominous bass rumble. To some it would seem repetitive, but the blistering cacophony reaches a hypnotic level, destroying everything that is good in this world.

By the time you reach ‘The Little Death’, it makes you feel exhausted, and somewhat depressed. There is no beauty in this album, and that is absolutely the point of ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’. The Body and Full Of Hell are not here to paint pretty pictures, or to make you feel alive; they are here to inflict pain. It seems fitting then that the album should end with a sample from ‘You Don’t Know Jack’, simply stating “Loss, loss, loss, loss, loss”.

‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’ is not for the faint of heart. If it were a video, it would be labelled “NSFW”, but in reality, it is not safe for anyone of a nervous disposition. Approach it caution, but fully immerse yourself in it when you get there, for ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’ is a truly agonising masterpiece.

GLEN BUSHELL