Blood Eagle — All Out War

All Out War sees the return of one of the legends of the walled noise scene Philadelphia based Paul Dever- who is behind projects like the mightly and blackly crushing Griz+zlor, the lunar worshiping militant HNW of Cursed Aether, and the more blacked drone tipped work of Dhusk. For this recent double C90 set sees Paul returning under the banner of Blood Eagle- to sever up four sides of bleakly battering walled matter.

Mr Dever stands as one of the longer running figures in the wall-noise scene- with some of his projects releases dating from around 2005, when the scene was starting to be shaped/ defined. Over the years he’s popped in and out of the scene under various banners- but whenever he has reappeared each new released has been praised by the wider wall noise scene- so it’s fair to say he is both a important and influential figure, and each new release( what ever the project) is worth checking out before the said release disappears. He started the Blood Eagle project in 2015- and has so far released around seven or so releases under that banner.
 
All Out War appeared on Stokholm based Ominous Recordings in July of this year- the double tape set had two releases- one of seventeen copies, and featuring black shelled cassettes. And one of five copies, that featured white shelled cassettes- both of these sadly disappeared in the blink of the eye- so ones only option now is a digital download. I’m reviewing the second edition of the release, and this finds the plain white tapes coming in a long clear case- this takes in a thick grey card sleeve that features  obscured pictures of bone cage showing humanoid figure.
 
Each side of tape takes in a single forty five minute wall- and these are simply named Parts I- IV. So starting proceedings off we have "Part I"- and here we find a tightly weaved 'wall' that brings together: a blunt low-to-mid ranged judder, cluttering and crisper jitter, and a muffled rumble. Together these elements create a decidedly organic 'wall'- that rather sounds like the closely miked sound of a descending huge rock bolder that seems to in eternal free fall. Along the 'walls' length I’m sure I can make out very subtle adjustments to all the layers here- though this, of course could just be a sonic illusion. It’s a damn crushing start to proceedings- and lets you know what to expect through-out.
 
Moving onto "Part II"- and we have another extremely crushing ‘n’ heavy wall- this brings together a mixture of constantly rolling & rapid buffeting, with thinner gritty hacks and snaps- these are weaved by shifting subtones that move between distant rolling thunder, grainy snaps ‘n’ pops. Once again there’s a very primal /organic feel to the proceedings here- and this time around I guess images of climbing up a steep and rugged rock face come to mind- as the chilled winter wind buffets and bays at your uncovered skin.
 
"Part III"- sees Mr. Dever knitting together a descending bass rumble, with snapping ‘n’ jittering grain of static sting. This wall has a nicely lumbering and huge quality about it- yet once again it’s fairly speed bound in it’s feel. The contrast between the thick & weighty elements, and the cluttering/ whipping smaller textures are great- it’s certainly another very heavy and brutal example of wall matter.
 
Lastly, we, of course, have "Part IV"- and this time around we have a blend rolling & deep drone- this is edged by a mixture cluttering, hacking, and feasting smaller static pattern. This 'wall' really feels devoid of all hope, light, and escape- as the whole thing just endlessly rages and batters away at both your hearing and nervous system with its monolithic mass.
 
All Out War is another totally uncompromising release from Dever highlighting his skill at creating dense and atmospheric wall matter. It’s a great pity this release is now out of print- as each wall is most worthy, intense, yet subtly different in it’s feel- with the whole three-hour playtime seemingly slipping away very quickly- when one gets set/ locked into the ‘walls’.