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At this point in Full Of Hell‘s nearly two decade career, nobody can convince me they’re not one of the best and most versatile extreme metal bands of this millenium. Their new EP Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is another example of why.

The last few years of Full Of Hell‘s career have been pretty varied. The band put out their insanely heavy collaboration with Primitive Man called Suffocating Hallucination in 2023, followed by the more spaciously dismal When No Birds Sang with shoegaze band Nothing a few months later that same year. Then Full Of Hell took some time to really explore different facets of what it means to be a metal band on their 2024 record Coagulated Bliss, and followed that with the dub-heavy grinding noise record Scraping the Divine featuring Andrew Nolan.

Now in 2025, Full Of Hell is kicking things off with their new 10” EP Broken Sword, Rotten Shield. According to the band and their label, the EP is a “blistering meditation on love, loss, and the crushing inevitability of grief. Through a fantasy-tinged lens, the band crafts a world of dog knights and noble quests, only to tear it all down in a violent reckoning with mortality.” Which sounds cute until it isn’t cute… which is pretty much the entire EP.

And I’ll say this right up front – if you’re going to dive into Broken Sword, Rotten Shield, make sure you listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Broken Sword, Rotten Shield doesn’t have any specific recurring motifs or act like it’s one entire song, but each track offers something different to add to the whole picture. I just feel like listening to one song off this thing is like eating one ingredient from a meal you’re cooking. Just wait until the whole thing comes together and get the bigger picture.

Alright, let’s dive into the songs on this thing. “Broken Sword, Rotten Shield” packs a lot of musical ideas into about 100 seconds of music. “Broken Sword, Rotten Shield” comes out furious with a mix of grindcore and punk-leaning beats before settling into a more consistent jog of steady double bass and riffs that teeter on total dissonance. Full Of Hell also clearly understands that despite this being extreme metal, repetition legitimizes and hooks listeners as they bring back some of the opening riffs to close this song out.

On the song and how it lays out the concept of the EP, vocalist Dylan Walker explained that the song is “introduction to the theme of the EP. The dog knights represent these pure defenders against a world of darkness and the feeling of utter grief and defeat when we lose these companions. Alongside that metaphor, the song also explains that in this world, all living things are rendered equal in the end, and for some that’s a mighty fall.”

“From Dog’s Mouth, A Blessing Full of Hell” is the shortest track on the EP at just 49 seconds, but it’s not a grinding rager. Instead, Full Of Hell constructs two very brief sections – one that’s more of a stomper and one that drives forward with double bass, underneath these super distorted vocals with an extremely short delay on them, which is a very cool effect in this instance. 

The middle section with the double bass is particularly cool, as the melody overtop is mostly this swaying, bent thing that’s never quite in tune – but it works really well in the context of this track.

Full Of Hell then puts a complete and total pause on their grinding madness for “Corpselight”, which I don’t even think has guitars. “Corpselight” is what I’d imagine a dub song would sound like if it was created entirely in hell. “Corpselight” uses low, droning synths, what sounds like a choir run through a bunch of filters and effects, a detuned snare drum, and some extraneous noise to support a surprisingly rhythmic yet screamed vocal line.

The first time I heard “Corpselight” on my first listen through this EP, I wanted to complain that the song just kinda ends abruptly, but it actually doesn’t. Right in the last second, Full Of Hell throws in this triple kick drum sample that mirrors the tempo of the next track. It’s subtle, but it’s a really cool way to pull listeners out of the swirling noise of the end of the track and back into the violence of this EP – and propel you into the next song.

“Lament of all Things”, which almost feels like a mirror image of “From Dog’s Mouth” but slower, in that it’s got those same big chordal riffs and broken melodies overtop. I really dig the opening riff of “Lament of all Things” too, mostly because Full Of Hell does something really cool but very subtle – before the vocals, it’s this big dissonant and towering riff, but as soon as the vocals come in Full Of Hell tightens up the harmonies so the vocals aren’t battling these super hairy, massive chords.

“Lament of all Things” segues right into “Mirrorhelm”, which is I guess the closest thing you’ll get to a respite on this EP. But it’s not relaxing at all. “Mirrorhelm” picks up on the brief noisy ending of “Lament” and employs these drawn out feedback-sounding notes, aimless clean guitars, backmasked audio files, and what I can only describe as a very Sunn O)))-esque spoken word part lurking underneath it all. 

If Broken Sword, Rotten Shield has somehow not impressed upon you the weight of grief and death just yet, “Mirrorhelm” should be a reminder.

“Knight’s Oath” picks the pace back up with some pretty straightforward riffing, though I think the magic in “Knight’s Oath” lies in the layers behind the obvious. There’s a lot of guitar melodies that are constantly ringing out in the background of this song that lay down this kind of quiet concrete foundation of like, “this is the overarching choral quality.” You don’t really notice it too much until it drops out and then everything feels way different. It’s a neat little effect and it’s just again, a very cool songwriting technique that Full Of Hell uses on this song.

On the concept of the song and kind of where you are in the EP at this point, Walker said in a statement the song is about having “…absolute dedication to your charge, be it a person you love or held tenet, and the ignominy that comes with a sudden defeat. That idea acts as a metaphor for the grief you feel when you lose an animal companion. It feels pointless, cruel, and void in the moment.”

And then finally there’s the slow-burning, crushing end that is “To Ruin and the World’s Ending”. This is four-plus minutes of molasses-slow death metal and cavernous vocals that completely collapses in on itself. Right around the 2:30 mark, there’s only a very primal drum groove alongside these extremely drawn out chords accompanied by totally tortured vocals… and it only gets more dismal in the last 30 seconds amid a wash of diminishing feedback.

Full Of Hell knows exactly who they are as a band. Full Of Hell is grindcore, death metal, hardcore punk, and noise. But where Full Of Hell constantly succeeds is that they’re well-versed in all those genres and know how to expertly explore each sound and its variations. Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is a perfect example of that.

Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is a solid eight out of ten for me. It’s a great listen if you’re a fan of Full Of Hell, and it’s got some tracks that I think newcomers to the band would find to be excellent entry points – namely the last two tracks. I wouldn’t say this is essential listening for Full Of Hell – they’ve got enough full lengths and collaborations for that – but Broken Sword, Rotten Shield is well worth your time and your money. It’s just another hit in a long line of hits from a band that pretty much can do no wrong, in my eyes.