Interview: Ken Geiger Sits Down Again with Full Of Hell's Spencer Hazard

Photo: Nick Lacuna

21st Birthday Celebration

By Ken Geiger

How does one celebrate their 21st birthday? I feel like the stories I have heard involve drinking lethal amounts of alcohol at the bars. Did I end up doing the same thing? Unsurprisingly, I did not. Instead, I went to go catch the wild behemoth that is Full of Hell live at the Highline Ballroom, playing alongside Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, and Artificial Brain. While I enjoy some of those bands a great deal, none of them could quite match the live intensity that the Ocean City, Maryland grindcore outfit brings every single time they step on a stage.

I cannot say that I instantly was head over heels for this band either when I first heard them. It took some intense listening sessions to realize that they were not just your average grind or powerviolence band that is setting out to write nothing but a minute and a half of riffs and call it a song. Full of Hell are setting trends that I feel many new underground bands aspire to incorporate into their own aesthetic: great merchandise, frequent collaborations with other artists, and an embrace for noise music that not everyone is brave enough to accept. It is truly something else that excites me to no end.

I managed to catch up with the band's guitarist, Spencer Hazard, on this night in the city to figure out more about Full of Hell than I already knew. What makes this band work their asses off so much? Can anyone define their sound? Is Buffalo Wild Wings still worth eating at? The man himself answers it all below.

K: Ken S: Spencer

K: How has the tour been so far?

S: It's been great so far. I think each band has collectively said this is one of the biggest tours they've been on, especially us. The turnout is good, reception to our music is great, and I feel like we're playing to new crowds.

K: What made you pick the songs you've been playing?

S: So it's mostly just Trumpeting Ecstasy stuff. Last time we toured with the Cavalera Brothers, the record wasn't released yet. So we definitely wanted to give people more of the newer songs.

K: How did you get Limbs Bin to play noise with you guys for this tour? What do you think he adds to your live sound?

S: He did merch for us on our tour with Entombed A.D. earlier this year, and on the way back from that tour, he did opening sets for us. So, when it came time to do this tour, we kind of thought "why don't we try to just do a collab set this time?" It's progressed slowly over the course of the tour. We're adding drum machine at some points in the set, some trash percussion here and there.

K: Do you think any recorded stuff can come out of this collaboration?

S: Oh, definitely. We wanted him to be on Trumpeting, but it never panned out. We felt that maybe the record would have been a little bloated if we added some of his elements to what was already there. When we write this next one, though, we will keep in mind some ideas that he has and put them in there.

K: Moving onto the new record, it sounds like all the songs flow so well into each other. Were those songs recorded individually, or done in one long marathon run?

S: With this record, every song was written individually. Some songs were written like forever ago, while others were written right up to the day we began recording. We wanted the record to feel natural, but it wasn't written or recorded to serve as one big piece. There were just some noise interludes to kind of make some songs flow better together.

K: How did it feel to work with so many big names in metal? You got to work with Aaron Turner, Kurt Ballou, Nate Newton to name a few. Are those guys fans?

S: It's a surreal feeling. I mean with Aaron Turner, we all grew up being huge fans of Hydra Head Records (the label that Turner runs). That was the label of the generation Dylan and I come from. But since both us and Sumac (Turner's latest band) were on Profound Lore at the time, we just decided to call and ask him if he wanted to do it. It turned out he was a huge fan.

As for Nate, we had played with Converge in Europe; so the connection was there already. Overall, though, I feel like we have become peers with these groups we looked up to when we were younger. It's no longer just little kids being like "oh, can you guys please be on our record?" It's a friendly collaboration thing.

K: Speaking in the vein of collaboration, how did it feel to feud with Santos from Old Man Gloom on Facebook?

S: Well isn't that top honor if you want to be an internet troll?

K: (laughs) That is true.  Anyways, are there leftover songs from the Trumpeting recording sessions?

S: There might be riffs, but I can't exactly remember. I do remember, though, that when we were writing for the record, there were songs meant for the split we did with Nails that originally going to be on Trumpeting, and vice versa. I think, if those songs were on the album though, instead of the split, it would have given it a whole different feel.

K: In general, I feel like Full of Hell is one of the bands that never stops working. I see clips online. You went back to the studio before this tour. A second collaboration with The Body is being sold at the merch table now. Where does this drive to keep working at such an insane pace come from?

S: I mean, I feel as though if you're a musician, why wouldn't you want to keep writing new music and trying new things? That's kind of the end goal of being a musician. We love to be interactive with our art. Even with t-shirt designs, we like to help design them or choose the artists who make our designs. Being hands-on with our band is integral to me. If I'm not writing or touring, I go crazy.

K: Compared to some of your other outputs recently, Trumpeting Ecstasy is not overly experimental. Rather, it's more death metal and straightforward. Was it a conscious decision to write more in that vein? The way I see it, Full of Hell kind of feels like it has become a world where you guys suck in other musicians to work with you. Do you think that the band has a defined sound anymore, and is it what we got on Trumpeting?

S: As with Trumpeting, we wanted to go with more straightforward. The last few releases with The Body and [legendary Japanese noise artist] Merzbow were so experimental, so we just said, "We haven't done something that has defined our own sound in a while." We have been working with other people to try and get a sound. So we wanted to write the record to show more of our own personal characteristics.

I feel as though with our music, it isn't really a collective. We just like to work with other people in a way that pushes our own boundaries, but not let the collaborations define us. I don't like to pigeon-hole our sound. We are massively influenced by bands like Swans, Bastard Noise, and Godflesh. All of whom try and push themselves sonically. That's my biggest thing as a musician. I want to push our music and be as creative as possible.

K: I see the Swans influence, although you have yet to push the 30-minute song threshold yet.  Maybe one day.

S: (laughs) Yeah, one can dream.

K: Moving onto your band's future, though… Full of Hell and The Body are set to release Ascending a Mountain of Heavy. Last time we spoke, you said your previous collaboration, One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache, was not written before entering the studio. Did that writing style change this time around? Did you try anything new in the studio, or are you just comfortable with what you guys do together by now?

S: We tried new stuff. Definitely nothing was written before the studio. We just wanted to try different things with different sounds and drum beats. You can tell that on the record, which is sonically diverse. The record is so different from the other one though, that we want to see how the public reacts to it. There are a lot more harsh elements and experimentation. We feel like One Day is just so sonically crushing, but felt that Ascending could push that sound even further.

K: Now with just Full of Hell itself, is there any other new music coming out? Possibly a new collaboration you could hint at?

S: We have one split written and recorded that's due out next year, but beyond that, we are probably going to just take a little break.

K: You guys deserve it. But before we end this, I need to ask: Why did you betray Buffalo Wild Wings?

S: The last few times I've gone, the food has been subpar in comparison to when I used to go, when it would be a completely magical experience. Now it's become a mundane, boring, every day restaurant experience. Until they gain my trust, I will not be going back.

K: And do you think Family Guy sold out?

S: They jumped the shark when Brian died.

Full of Hell's new record, Trumpeting Ecstasy, is now out on Profound Lore Records.

Additionally, they will be releasing a new collaboration with The Body, entitled Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light, on November 17th through Thrill Jockey Records.

Retox Played Voltage Lounge and The Body / Full Of Hell Played Maket Hotel. PLUS Interview with FOH's Spencer Hazard, 9/8-9/9/16

Retox

My Own Back to School Jam

Words and Pics by Ken Geiger

Syllabus week had arrived.  To me, the last chances of freedom that we associate with the summer vacation had come, and I had to take advantage of it.  This meant time to find some awesome concerts.  Luckily, two of the best acts around today had conveniently decided to play in the tristate area on Thursday and Friday.

Retox: The first one was California’s mighty Retox. I have been following these guys literally since the beginning, and have spent so much time with them when they come to the east coast that it feels like they’re older brothers to me at this point. I still remember the first time I saw them play to a crowd of 3 at the Asbury Lanes. I still think of it as the best show at the Lanes that no one even knows happened. But, I digress. It had been 2 and a half years too long since I had seen Retox, and I had the chance to change that. First stop was at Creep Records for a meet and greet the band was doing. I caught up with all the guys, who still remembered me as “the only reason I remember that bowling alley show.” Then before I knew it, we got into the Retox van and drove to get some dinner and go to the venue. The day couldn’t have gotten any better in my eyes, but of course I was wrong by the time the actual show started.

New York experimental outfit, The Netherlands, opened the show. Armed with guitar, synth, drums and a vocalist who sounded like a robot with all the effects he was running through his mic, they delivered a chaotic set that ranged from crushing noise rock anthems to short bursts of chaotic energy. I definitely recommend that anyone who is into the noise rock genre around here to check these guys. I know I have to explore further now.

Then came Mexican goth punk band, Silent. New signees to Retox singer Justin Pearson’s Three One G label, these guys delivered a wild set that most Three One G bands are known to do. Perhaps my favorite moment of their set was when singer Jung Sing plucked a kid who could not have been over 5 years old from the audience and let him experience the show from the performers perspective. I hope that kid can remember that as a life changing event from years down the road.

He Whose Ox Is Gored from Washington came after that and delivered probably the heaviest set of the show. Much different from the punk sounds that had been going for most of the night, this post-metal outfit put on a raging set filled with hard-hitting songs and great interludes of synth and atmospheric drones. Another band I think I have to keep in my radar for the future.

He Whose Ox Is Gored

Then came the ever so great Retox. They gave the crowd about 14 or15 songs (as I can remember) clocking in at about 25 minutes, and it couldn’t have been any better. The musicianship of the instrumentals, Pearson’s awesomely shrill vocal delivery, the live intensity that literally radiates off of all four of them as they perform… It just works to their advantage in the best way possible. Then to invite Silent’s Jung Sing to do vocals on the Ugly Animals cut “Thirty Cents Shy of a Quarter?” I had lost it by that point! But what I say cannot really do it justice. As Retox drummer Brian Evans told me after the show, “We’re a band you just have to see live to get it.”  No words have ever been so true.

Retox w/ Jung Sing (Silent)

The Body and Full Of Hell: Still feeling the effects of the Retox show from the previous night, it took me a while to realize the next day that I was going to witness the collaborative set between the Body and Full Of Hell that very night. Now, for anyone familiar with the more experimental sides of the underground punk and metal scenes that exist, this show was nothing short of a huge deal. Both bands had been building their respective names up big time in recent years with prolific collaborations and individual albums. I had been fairly oblivious to their existences, but when these two joined forces for this year’s One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache, I could no longer ignore. These two bands were forces to be reckoned with. The journey to the Market Hotel was set then. 4 acts all representing different ends of the extreme music spectrum, some of the most intense audience reactions and even a chance to sit down and talk to Full of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard all came out of this eventful evening.

Limbs Bin was the first to take stage. Being just a one-man noise act, he ran through a surprising 20+ song set in just about 3 minutes. That is not a typo.  If you are not familiar with the world of noise music, then Limbs Bin is a great place to start. Sets that last that long are the norm (plus song titles like “Jazz Rich” and “End White Supremacy” are thrown somewhere in that mix too).

Trenchgrinder came up shortly after and gave us a good set of a pretty straightforward mix of crust punk and death metal. The riffs were grimy, the drums were blast beating and the vocals were shrill as all hell, fitting in as an instrument of their own respectfully.

Trenchgrinder

After that, we were met with a long wait for Gas Chamber. That could really be forgiven though because when this experimental outfit took the stage, it was really like nothing I had seen before. First of all, it is almost impossible to find these guys on social media. Enough digging around helped me find that they have a word press site if you want to find any of their stuff (https://gaschamberhardcore.wordpress.com/). The songs never really stopped, they just bled into each other with some horrifying drone interludes to fill the dead space. They had the chaotic tendencies of grindcore to get the crowd moshing, but also were able to insert moments of prog and atmosphere that makes me think they might take notes from some more melodic acts, like Neurosis or King Crimson. I think the biggest regret of my night had to be that I didn’t think to stop at their merch stand and pick up a record afterwards. At least the hunt to find their stuff is over for me.

But as much as these first few acts were great, it was time for what I really came to see; the Body and Full Of Hell collaboration. It started just as the record did, eerily silent. Body drummer Lee Buford was starting to play the opening beats to the One Day You Will Ache… eponymous opening track. Everyone in the crowd knew what was to come. Finally, the full band chimed in with Buford to deliver a wall of noise that I think can only be rivaled, in my opinion, by that of Swans. And from there, the onslaught did not really stop. We got to hear more from One Day You Will Ache, the Full of Hell cut “Thrum in the Deep” from their album they did last year with Merzbow, some improvised harsh noise (with a saxophone thrown in the mix, nonetheless), and even an amazing cover of the Devo classic “Gates of Steel.” Between all the music and crazy crowd, these two bands managed to deliver a set that left me exhausted and in pure awe. The Body are known for rarely performing their collaborations more than once live, but let’s hope they really decide to do another round of shows with Full Of Hell in the future.

The Body / Full Of Hell

Interview with Spencer Hazard (K= Ken S= Spencer)

K: One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache has been out for over half a year now, I was wondering why it took so long to do a tour behind the album. I had heard you already did a tour with The Body around the release time of the album, but did not do any stuff off the album.  So why now?

S: Well we did a European tour with The Body, and their actual drummer (Lee Buford) cannot tour overseas, so they had a fill in drummer. We didn’t feel it would be right to do the collaboration without both members. It didn’t feel like it would be a true collaboration. And also, both bands are so busy all the time, so it took a little planning to have both bands’ schedules actually line up.

K: In terms of the actual live set, there are songs from the collaborative album, as well as songs from both of your respective catalogues. Are there any songs that were suggested that did not end up making the final set?

S: Oh yeah, of course. We wanted to play a couple of the songs, but since they are so manipulated in the studio, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off in a live situation. Even the songs we play live, we had to practice them differently. You can tell they’re the songs still, but they come off differently. There was no way we would have been able to play something like “Fleshworks” [track 2 on the album], just because it’s so manipulated in the studio. We did throw in a cover though, “Gates of Steel” by Devo. We also wanted to do “Pet Sematary” by the Ramones, but it just couldn’t work out instrumentally.

K: And actually speaking of the studio, I had heard that with this album, there was a lot of improvisation. Was any of the music actually written prior to going into the studio, and how was it just doing improvisation, as opposed to having prepared material?

S: Nothing was written at all. Basically we would come up with a beat, or a rhythm section and add different instrumentation on top of it. Like, Lee would come up with a drum machine idea or Dave [Bland, Full Of Hell drummer\ would come up with an actual drum kit idea. And then around it, I would write a guitar riff or something. So nothing was written until the computer was turned on and was like, “OK. Go. Record.” It was all spur of the moment type of stuff.

K: and how long was recording?

S: About a week.  Not even a week, like a work week. 4 or 5 days of initial recording. Then The Body and the producer sat down with it and manipulated it in Garageband or Pro Tools because that’s what The Body does nowadays. They look at the music as a chance to experiment and almost like a DJ type of thing.

K: Actually speaking of The Body and their newer work, how does it feel to be the album cover of their newest album, No One Deserves Happiness?

S: It’s actually not me. It’s actually an old painting from like the 17th or 18th century. But for some reason, it kind of just looks like me.  Maybe it’s the way I part my hair (laughs)? It’s just coincidence.
K: And the last thing I can think of about your tie in with The Body… Why did you guys decide to do a Leonard Cohen cover (“The Butcher”)? Whose idea was it to do it and how did you go about basically rewriting that song?

S: It was a song that our singer [Dylan Walker] had wanted to do for a very long. I guess he felt like the lyrical themes reflected other lyrical themes of the stuff he was writing. Basically too, the song is a couple notes so we just played the song, but Chip [King, singer/guitarist/noise maker of The Body] played it in his tuning to make it sound more manipulated.

K: Now to turn more towards Full Of Hell, you guys have been a band about 7 years right?

S: Yeah, coming up on 8 years in February.

K: So I have to ask, a lot of people consider musical genres that you guys are lumped into, such as grindcore or powerviolence, stale or derivative over time. What made me interested first in you guys was that Neurot Records, known for its association with experimental artists like Neurosis and Oxbow, was putting out the Full Of Hell and Body collab. So how do you continue to challenge yourselves and experiment with almost 8 years under your belt? Who are your influences for staying this fresh?

S: First and foremost, I would consider Full Of Hell to be a punk or experimental band.  We have obvious grind or powerviolence influence. I feel like saying you are punk or experimental makes you feel more open ended to do whatever you want. As far as influences go, we are more of the what we are into at the moment type of thing. I think we have always worn our influences on our sleeves, but we put on our twist on that kind of stuff. We actually have a new LP written, and we are just waiting to record it in December actually. It’s more experimental death metal sounding. Justin Broaderick [of Godflesh and Jesu fame] is actually going to be singing a song on it. It sounds like, you know, Human Remains and stuff like that; bands that want to push the boundary in that genre. Another collaboration with The Body is something we have been talking about too. Part of us want it to sound way more chaotic, while the other half want more of an industrial type sound. So we have to see where we meet in the middle with that. But, above all, with a band that has been going this long, you have to just take in as much music as possible and incorporate it into your own style.

K: So the site that this interview is being put on does a lot of coverage on local bands. I want to ask then, is Full Of Hell a full time band?  Do you guys do any work outside the band, and if you are, do you have any advice for any bands starting up that may want to focus a lot of their time on just their music?  

S: I mean me, Dylan and Sam [DiGristine, Full of Hell bassist] all work jobs, whether they be seasonal or as much as we can when we are home. We still are an underground band and we try to operate DIY, so we cannot really make living wages off of it. My suggestions for bands is that I feel like a lot of bands have too high of expectations on that whole “making it” type of thing. I have a lot of friends’ bands that did not have any initial success about 4 or 5 months out and just got discouraged. So you have to just keep working hard, pushing yourselves all the time. That has to be my main advice for bands that want longevity and tour as much like that.

K: Another local thing, I know you guys played the Meatlocker recently. Is there any type of local venues in the area like that you still play or enjoy playing?  

S: Yeah we play DIY spots all the time. I cannot think of any at the moment actually. Most of the ones I think of are either shut down or have gone out of business or have gone under renovations. I had an awesome time at the Meatlocker though. ABC No Rio was great; I know they are just renovating that. I hope the new spot is just as good. But there are no particular houses around the area that I can think of though.

K: OK. My friends wanted me to ask these last few questions, so I am just going to rapid fire them off to you. First one, is dicks out for Harambe an actual action or a metaphorical idea?

S: I think it is a metaphorical idea. You know, you do not want to be caught in public for a sexual offense. So just keep that to the internet.

K: Alright, and I think you are well versed in these last few questions since they pertain to Buffalo Wild Wings. So, what’s your favorite sauce from there?

S: I just like standard hot. Also, they have this buffalo rub and I hate dry rub stuff. It’s okay on certain things, but when you get fried chicken, it’s just like putting too much salt and pepper on it. I would rather have the wings just soaked in a sauce. And I like just standard sauce.

K: Do you own any stock in Buffalo Wild Wings?

S: No because I do not know if it’s a private franchise or public franchise. But it is something I should definitely look into.

K: (Laughs) You definitely should. And, last one, would you ever think of going to Buffalo Wild Wings with fans after a show?

S: Possibly if I have time. Most of the time, they take too long getting orders out. My girlfriend and I go all the time and most of the time we are just sitting there forever. And half the time, the shows end super late.

K: Plus they never have anything that good to watch on the TVs there. But I want to thank you very much for giving me the chance to sit down and talk to you man.  I cannot wait for the show tonight and I wish you guys the best of luck down the road!

S: Thank you very much man.