Live Review: Full of Hell - Gorilla, Manchester
8th April 2026
Support: The Body, Jarhead Fertilizer, JAD
Words: Matthew Williams
Photos: Rich Price
Think back to the scene from Reservoir Dogs, when the sadistic Mr Blonde is strutting around the room to “Stuck in the Middle with You” before he slices the ear off the LAPD officer sat on the chair. That’s exactly how my ears felt as I walked out into the Manchester streets after watching this gig headlined by American grindcore exponents Full of Hell.
The fact that opening band, Poland’s hardcore punk nutters JAD, were the easiest on the ear, says it all really. Their brand of explosive and expressive punk tunes was brilliant from the moment they opened with “Toniesz” with a mix of slow and fast riffs. Frontman Krzysztof Paciorek prowls the stage, hunched down in parts, as they churn through chaotic songs including “Reka” and “Pustka”. He proclaims that he’s happy that “the world didn’t end yesterday” before they rip into the madness that is “Na strazy Klamstw”.
It’s relentless, with pockets of the crowd really enjoying themselves. As the venue fills up, due to the early 6.30pm start time, more can be seen headbanging along, particularly to the brilliant “Na Dno”. It’s angry, aggressive music, which has slower parts, the start of “Odwet” being one, yet it’s still punishing and brutal. The awesome “Agresja” wraps up their short but hugely enjoyable set as our ears get set for more brutality.
I was genuinely lost for words listening to Maryland’s Jarhead Fertilizer. It’s been a while since I’ve witnessed anything quite like them, but from the moment drummer and vocalist David Bland lets out one almighty scream at the start of “Product of my Environment”, it is just pure, unadulterated madness. He does however look uncomfortable perched upright, wrapped in a thick, heavy chain, but he’s an absolute machine, with so much double bass action that I can feel myself shaking at times.
There’s a crazy bass intro for “God Soaked Malignancy” before they turn to an old one, “Body of Crime” which is awesome to watch live. As well as drumming and singing, Bland is also in charge of the sound effects as he hits the computerised pad to the side of him. These interjections of blood curdling noises, combine well with their scary grindcore, but helps to power songs as “Baptized by Fire”, “Street Successor” and the unbelievable “Castigation”.
They mix the tempos incredibly well, with slower more composed elements, that have a bit more melody to them, whilst still pound away at you. “Cell Warrior” and “Xanax Parasite” are sheer bedlam, but tight as hell, with an imposing bass sound throughout, and they finish off the set with “Parasitic Pathology” as police sirens signal the slow and heavy “Life is a Prison”.
I first saw Rhode Island’s The Body in 2024, when they toured their spectacular “Orchards of a Futile Heaven” with Dis Fig, so knew what to expect from them. With guitarist Chip King, standing to the side of drummer Lee Buford, there’s a warming connection between the two, and its ear splitting from the word go, as religious images adorn the screen behind them.
The slow, ambling beginning is in stark contrast to the cacophonous noise that awaits all in the venue during their set, but you can’t help but be transfixed on the duo. The beats are pulsating, King’s vocals mostly inaudible, but at one point he strums downwards in a single motion, as Buford hits a repetitive snare and floor tom beat, lost in a moment, they smile at each other before detonating another frenzied rhythm.
Their mix of tempos is impressive and even thought they have one or two false starts, the crowd are headbanging along in perfect motion. There’s very little crowd interaction except for one “thanks very much” but we aren’t here for that, we are here to witness an intense experience of brutal noises, metronomic drumming and pure insanity from two people who do it better than most, and they leave to huge applause.
Now it was time for the headline act, Maryland’s uncompromising quartet Full of Hell, led by singer and electronic wizard, Dylan Walker. He stands front and centre and lets out a monumental scream of “Manchester” which signals 45 minutes of absolute carnage, both on and off the stage.
Leading with “Burning Myrrh” and followed by “Transmuting Chemical Burns” it feels like the most violent eruption possible, and we are all along for the ride. He has such dynamism on stage, and with bassist Sam DiGristine providing a powerful vocal back up, they take the intensity levels even higher. The noise they create is migraine inducing and nobody is leaving Gorilla without a headache of some sort.
Walker comments that “it’s a great time to be away from our country” and thanks everyone for being here before commencing with “Crawling Back to God” and the truly insane “Shattered Knife”. They play fast and loud, but combine it with some mid-slow tempo stuff, which is great to hear, as it allows the faster music to shine. The crowd are fully immersed and go nuts during the even more extreme “Digital Prison”.
The frontman uses a strange sound machine several times alongside his mic to project his voice in a different manner, which all adds to the force of the performance. He jokes about the next song being a ballad, but it goes off like a car bomb, and he comments that it’s “so much fun being nihilistic but I’m trying to shed that skin”. By the time they get to “Schizoid Rapture” which is about him being “an emotional teenager” the drummer adds more weight to the possessed vocal.
“We wrote this back in the early days” as they lay further siege to the venue with “Bone Coral and Brine” which includes a drum solo, and then the mic gets handed to the front row for them to scream into. The dedicate one of the final songs to JAD and finish with a longer more protracted song, which I think was “Armory of Obsidian Glass”. Either way, the slow, heaviness is fearsome and does nothing to stop the havoc they’ve caused in Manchester on a Wednesday night. Now I just wait for my ears to recover.
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
