Azoikum/ Cannibal Ritual — Gruesome Slaughter

Here’s the 4th volume in the ‘Gruesome’ series of double-disc wall noise split’s from German label Meat Hook Butchery.This time around the focus is on a lot more loose/ at times jam-like wall making, which drifts  nto wallish harsh noise territory.As with the other releases in this double-disc CDR series-each artists offer up a disc of material- and this time featured here are two German projects- Azoikum, and Cannibal Ritual.

Just like the other three releases in this series, the two white-labeled CDRs are presented in a double DVD case. And for the artwork this time we get black & white drawings of a group of three men tired to trees- and one of the men has had his head & arm chopped off. Once again this release has an edition of 50 copies- so you still should be able to snare a copy of this.
 
Before I get into reviewing the sonics of this release- I feel I’ve got to put my cards on the table, as many long-time readers will know I’m a huge fan of the wall noise genre- but I’m less keen on more active/ jam like wall-matter- so I maybe a little less positive/ down on this release purely because of this…anyway lets get into it.
 
The first disc takes in four tracks from Azoikum- this project seemingly started in 1997, initial releasing PE and harsh noise- they run until 1999- then went on hiatus until early 2019. I can’t recall hearing any of this projects past work- so this my first taster Azoikum- and what we have over these four tracks is a blend of wallish harsh noise & loose HNW. Each of the tracks runs between the sixteen & twenty-minute mark- the first track "NXIVM I"- gives you a good idea of what to expect on the rest of the disc. It opens with a mixture of rolling static & skirting fan belt like high pitched drifts- around the minute & a half mark the high-end disperse, and we’re left with a continual swirling & shifting blend of grainy rushes, cluttering circulating, and muffled judders- all creating a very muddled-if-fairly disorientating track- in the latter half of the track we get more seared variations on the textures, but tonally it stays fairly similar.
The longest track here "NXIVM II" finds a blend of clattering 'n' swelling noise textures which have a very circling/fuzzing feel to them- and over the tracks twenty minutes & ten seconds runtime Azoikum creates this feeling of battering & baying noise storm. Once again it’s very undisciplined and loose in it feel- there are moments when things firm up more, and you get a nice blend of layers, I rather enjoyed this track- the problem is these moments soon depart as we shift on more variations.
On the whole, I can certainly appreciate & respect this type of muddled & loose wall-making, but I’m afraid it does little or nothing for me.
 
Moving onto the second disc, and of course we have the Cannibal Ritual material- and basically what we have here is a single sixty four-minute track entitled “Gruesome  Slaughter”. This follows on from the feel of the first disc with a loose sound- though it’s much more wall noise-based- it’s just very jam-like in it feel, as CR moves from one set of textures to the next over the track's runtime. We go from flittering ‘n’ jittering static mesh cascades, onto to stark & rolling drone wall crudeness, through to dense blends of chopping ‘n’ fizzing noise play. There are some neat ‘walls’ though-out the track, and CR certainly knows how to hold & stay on good textural blends well- but I’m afraid ultimately my attention drifted over the track's runtime.
 
So as we move towards the end of this review I’m sure you’ll be able to gather this really wasn’t for me- sure I respect & understand what both parties where trying to do here, but I’m afraid both discs are just too active/ shifting for my liking- hence the low mark…but if you enjoy wallish Harsh noise, or active wall noise then clearly you'll get a lot more out of this then I did...head here