HOWL

One of the highlights from my trip to this year's SXSW (South By Southwest) festival was the Relapse Records showcase. Already exhausted from an afternoon full of music, beverage and the sweltering Texas heat, the mere thought of seeing KILL THE CLIENT, TOMBS and the almighty VOIVOD on one stage was enough to get my second wind going. Tossed right in the middle of the line up came the surprise of the night. From behind a huge wall of detuned and distorted sound came the fury that I would come to know as HOWL. During their set this Rhode Island quartet struck a chord powerful enough to cut through booze-induced fog in my head and their full-length debut. "Full Of Hell", proves that I wasn't just caught up in the moment.

Falling under the 'post-doom' umbrella, HOWL might be better described as post-apocalyptic as their bottom-heavy and hellish sound often comes across as the sonic equivalent to a three-ton steel beast spreading havoc across some dystopian wasteland. Flowery descriptors aside, HOWL really does bring the shit with "Full Of Hell". A subtle nod the previous successes Relapse has had with bands of similar ilk (MASTODON, BARONESS, et al.),HOWL manage to separate themselves from that pack by replacing the southern-fried hostility the aforementioned bands carry with a much darker aura. Monolithic doom gives way to a metallic angularity on opener "Horns Of Steel". Right away, a theme of sludgy and disjointed riffing topped with gritty and rage-filled vocals is set and though the album sticks to this plan for much of its playing time, HOWL does well to keep things interesting with various twists and turns. "You Jackals Beware" and "Parish Of The Obscene" serve some tasty chunks of LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR-inspired slam, but it's during tracks like "Heavenless" and "The Scorpion's Last Sting" where HOWL's hellfires burn the hottest. While neither sound too out of place from the rest of the album, the former adds flourishes of dark prog and reverb-drenched ambience (mainly during the guitar solos) while the latter dances violently through swampy waters for a sort of visceral and avant-sludge effect. Preceded by the ultra-violent "Gods In Broken Men", the minute-long "Asherah" ushers in the multi-headed monster that is "Jezebel". At times hypnotic, at times psychotic, this plodding piece of gloom and doom serves up massive amounts of depression. "Full Of Hell" finishes with the almost ten-minute "The Day Of Rest". Taking elements from everything heard during the previous eight tunes, this epic number manages to keep the listener's attention despite its length, leaden tempo and wandering arrangement. The song's closing moments of spacey guitar noise and droning melody brings surreal end to this otherwise turbulent record.

As impressive of a debut as "Full Of Hell" is, it does leave a bit to be desired. For one, HOWL spends much of the album in a comfort zone of sorts. Not that wearing your MELVINS, LOTM, SABBATH and EYEHATEGOD influences on your sleeve could be construed as 'safe' in any language, parts of this disc lead me to believe that we haven't heard everything these musicians are capable of yet. Should they allow their experimental side to help solidify their identity, we could be looking at this brand of metal's next champion. My other gripe would be the production. Obviously you don't want to hear a band like this try to pull off an over-Pro-Tooled, polished sound, but parts of "Full Of Hell" just struck me as too low-fi and muddied. Guitar tone this gut-wrenchingly badass should attack eardrums, not fight its way through reverb. In the grand scheme of things, these downfalls are not serious enough to take away from the overall power and fury of "Full Of Hell". Haters of all things happy would do well to add HOWL to their daily soundtrack.