Full of Hell – Full of Hell & Merzbow

Rigged

Rigged: Full of Hell Guitarist Spencer Hazard

by Max Frank

February 26, 2015 12:00 pm

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It’s no secret that we here at Gear Gods are huge Full of Hell fans. I named their collaboration with Japanese noise icon Merzbow, Full of Hell & Merzbow, my number two album of 2014, and we’ve been following closely the career of their longtime engineering partner, Kevin Bernsten of Developing Nations Recording Studio in Baltimore.

It feels weird to say this about a band that plays such brutal grind/hardcore, but Full of Hell’s music is a breath of fresh air. Their riffs, ideas, and sonic palette are wholly unique, and though they draw from well-trodden subgenre territory, their take on the style is surprisingly original, particularly on the new record. As I said in my review, they seem to paint in different shades of black – just when you think that they’ve exhausted of an idea or riff pattern, they find a way to expand. Full of Hell, like pioneers Brutal Truth, Napalm Death, Repulsion, and more, plumbs the depths of metal.

We reached out to guitarist Spencer Hazard to learn more about how Full of Hell achieves their brand of sonic destruction:

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I’ll start with my guitars. My main guitar currently is my BC Rich Ironbird Pro. It is my first guitar with a real Floyd Rose tremelo system. I thought I would dread it, but now I feel weird using a guitar without one. I changed out the original EMG pick-up for a Seymour Duncan Black Winter. I have completely fallen in love with it. I have two other Ironbirds that are currently being set-up with the same pickups. A NJ series IB with a Kahler and a Platinum series IB with an older Floyd.

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My 2nd guitar is an older series BC Rich Platinum Warlock. Everything is stock and I absolutely love the sound of the pick-ups. For as beat up and old as this guitar is, it plays amazingly and sounds even better. I used this guitar for our full US tour last summer with Noisem and Dropdead. A lot of people hate on BC Rich but I think the older models are amazing guitars for the price you can usually find them for.

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My 3rd Guitar on this list is my Ampeg AMG-100. This was my main guitar for years up until I started collecting old BC Richs. I have used this guitar on every one of our records starting from the Code Orange Kids split up until the Merzbow collab. I love the weight and tone of this guitar and it’s so simple to change the strings on it. That’s why it was my main touring guitar up until recently.

The Chrous, Super Flanger, and Bass Overdrive pedals are mostly used for noise and interludes during Full Of Hell's live sets. Hazard has used the flanger on “Bone Coral” from Rudiments.

These pedals were all also used on the Merzbow collab in non-conventional ways. Hazard had the flanger and super chorus running through a contact mic, which He then taped it to a cymbal for one track and to a floor tom for another.