Album Review: Hell - Submersus
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Talk about a productive band eh? Here we have Hell and their fifth full length album, their first since their self-titled released eight years ago. Hell are a one-man band, fronted by Matthew Scott Williams, having started the project back in 2006, hailing from Oregon, United States. Hell’s catalogue is absolutely awash with Splits alongside other acts but the first full length saw the light of day back in 2009 (also self-titled) and Hell II followed suit the following year. Across albums, EPs, Live Albums and Splits, Hell’s sound has been described as this medley of death, drone and sludge metal; given such an array of styles meshed together I knew I had to check this out, prepared for a deafening, caustic experience. Releasing independently come July 11th, Hell’s newest opus comes on the heels of a collaboration with Mizmor, so anyone familiar with the matter should give them an inkling as per what Submersus will deliver. I was ready for battle for I knew Hell wasn’t going to make it easy for me.
Is it really a sludge-laden record without that initial squeal of guitar fuzz? Much like Thou and Cough, Hell enforce a ferocious soundscape that’s not so much ruthless as it is unpleasant an environment to be stuck in. Furthermore Hell aren’t concerned with subjecting your psyche to some blitzkrieg-level pacing as their tempo is nice and steady, its clearly winning the race because you won’t be able to tear your ears from its seismic, noxious presence. Like being submerged in toxic gases, Submersus possesses a nightmarish, intoxicating atmosphere that doesn’t feel heavy like a greats weight on you but rather you’ve been thrown to the bottom of a well and layers of poison are accumulating atop you. Listening to this record one may feel able to move through the band’s atmosphere though you’d have a hard time piercing its dense fog; the riffs thereby come through coated and misshapen as if what we’re experiencing is the misaligned, malignant form of the riffs after they initially entered the band’s soundscape. Slowing their performance has also allowed Hell to truly imbue their performance with a lethality only synonymous with biological agents: this is no exercise in manslaughter, Submersus is death.
Given the nature of this record and the kind of affliction Submersus may leave you with, it makes sense why the bass is so heavy and strong in places. Had the bass been any lighter or weaker within the mix you’d have a performance that doesn’t pack anywhere near as strong of a punch. Hell were going for a suffocating environment akin to the dense smoke borne of an inferno and to that respect they succeeded, for listening to these lengthy pieces is remarkably easy though the band aren’t about to let this be completely void of challenge. You need that strength of bass coming through to give the record enough weight to demonstrate that this is no time to play around. But aside from establishing the atmospheric tone I love how audible the bass lines are across the album, even as the songwriting intensifies and the drums picks up speed. It just gives audiences another notch to latch onto whilst the record plays. Ultimately however, its nice to note Hell didn’t attempt to kill our senses; the instrumentation establishes this to be a hostile, heaving performance but listening to ten-minute tracks never grows arduous or irksome. It’s the kind of soundscape that’d calm any wearied sociopath.
I’m not used to these segments, but there are times where the Drone element of Hell’s sound comes into play and it does just as much to further their aesthetic than any riff could conjure. You might some extensive section committed to recording where there’s barely a handful of notes played, the sole factor behind the band being the resonance of instrumentation, droning on and on, fading, yet its strength far from waning, the cacophony of sound brought down from cataclysmic to a nigh-monastic devilry. I just love the guts on Hell to make the cohesive choice to cut conventional instrumentation out for minutes at a time, few bands are prepared to take that risk in worry of losing their audience’s engagement. However, these almost ambient sections serve as bridges between other sections of songwriting so whilst you could say they’re a departure from Hell’s boiling fumes, they remain an intrinsic part of the overall performance, breaking up the incessant assault, allowing us a breather, though the ordeal is far from finished. Extreme metal has found numerous avenues by which aggression can be channeled and Hell emphasise the notion that evil need not leave our souls in battered state to know its work is done. “Factum” champions this thoroughly.
Its fascinating how Hell utilise such extremities of production and aesthetic to craft music that, on surface level, is vile and emphasises the truest evils, yet the flow of sound doesn’t always harbour tidings of malice. If you look at “Mortem” this track has all the call signs of crawling despair and should present audiences with a crushing, debilitating experience but the way its been composed tells otherwise. The surrounding vibe might be malevolent yet the music presents something more profound and introspective, not to a great detail given the record is still set on entertaining you through visceral fire and grime, but its not actively trying to kill you with every second you’re tuning in. The songwriting feels very open-ended and whilst you’ve got Hell’s approach to extreme metal figured out, you’ll never know upon that first listen which emotion they will wish you to venture unto. Is it horror? Melancholy? Hope? The shadow out of sight? Submersus is never cut and dry with aggression, its never just the one and done form, there’s always some underlying, greater aesthetic embedded within Hell’s performance that holds it aloft so many of their contemporaries.
In conclusion, Submersus is not your typical extreme metal record but that does not discount the incredible time you’re bound to have plodding its atmosphere. Contrary to most music like this Submersus is entirely devoted towards atmosphere and what instrumentation, vocals, production etc can do to garner our devotions towards it. Though the riffs do pull you in at first, and the odd ascensions of raw power visible, this is a record more than comfortable to stay amidst one level plain yet there is so much thrown in here to keep you engaged you won’t have any difficulty manoeuvring Hell’s elongated pieces. Even throughout their shortest tracks the curiosity won’t end as Hell use these to showcase their capacity for Drone and ambience, elements that are evidently more than some throwaway technique to entice us. I actually really enjoyed how different this record is, it was pleasant to experience a record that was more inclined towards atmosphere than how fast a guitar chord or blast beat can be hurled at us. Fans of more savage sludge and death metal will want to pick this up come its July 11th release date. I’ll certainly want to catch the next Hell release.
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