Bleak Existence — Love Earth Hate People
The first sides track is entitled “Love Earth”, and it opens with this nice/intense mix of three or so crusty ‘n’ dusty tumbling noise tones- these are edged by the occasional billowing sub-tones, & ever-so-often almost harmonic tone pitch sustains. The pace here is rapid ‘n’ careering, and the whole thing rather brings to mind a intense inside a cave rock/earth avalanche. By around the 7th minute there’s this sort of ice skating or slicing snow tonality appeared, and this becomes more and more prevalent with-in the mesh of tumbling tones. This new element gives the whole thing a more wintery feel, maybe now the rapid rock avalanche is now mixed with great sways of snow & ice. At around the 14th minute the slicing ice/snow element seems to shifting into more sustained & pummelling focus, yet the rapid rock tumbling still carries on along with more of the harmonic tone sustains; these elements now have really taken quite an eerier feel to them now, yet the whole things is still as intense as hell. At around the 23rd minute we move into even more focused dwells of the skating/ slicing tones- and these last up to thirty seconds a time, also the tumbling rock textures feel more channelled then before, as if there now careering down a slowly narrowing tunnel. This track is certainly a deeply compelling & hypnotic bit of wall-making, and Bleak Existence mangers to create a ‘wall’ that’s sonically descriptive, cleverly shifting, and damn intense.
Flipping over to side two, and we have a track entitled “Hate People”. This track is built around a huge rumbling ‘n’ billowing rapid churn, which has these slicing/skiing/ rapidly crisply crunching sub textures lashing out from it. The main texture is really bone grinding in it’s huge ‘n’ weighty churn, and the sub-tones really suck you deeper into the ‘walls’ structure with their subtle shifting layers. As we move towards the 7th minute more rapidly slicing/ skiing textures appear, and these edge the truly brutal rumbling in an intense sonic cake icing sort of manner. By around the 10th minute the rumble/ billow seems less intense & roasting in it’s attack, and the sub-textural elements seem to get more & more prevalent. At the 12th minute the rumble/billow seems to subtle morph to a more battering low end down pour, but the sub-tones continue to make compelling sonic deviations. The rest of the track sees a reward push ‘n’ pull battle going on between the slowly reducing low-end tone & the more prevalent sub-tones. Once again this is a very compelling/ rewarding ‘wall’.
Love Earth Hate People is another wonderful example of how great a wall-maker Bleak Existence, as both sides ‘walls’ are well conceived & executed perfectly so their both damn brutal yet extremely entrancing too. I’d say this is one of HNW’s 2014’s highlights, and hopefully you’ll still be able to pick up a copy of this as it was released in a edition of 57 copies.