Burial Ground & Crown Of Bone — Hellraiser: A Tribute
The labelled C85 tape comes in a full colour pro-printed sleeve which features various pictures of the infamous Hellraiser cube. The tape comes in a edition of 50 copies, so if you’d like to pick this is up there are still likely to be copies of this around now.
Each side of tape presents the listener with a single lengthy 39 to 41 minute track that’s a shifting inferno of walled noise that seared with black noise grain sweeps, clunking industrial shifts, harsh noise texturing, and of course the odd bit of samples from both movies.
So side one is taken up by the track “Hellraiser”, which of course pays tribute to the 1987 Clive Barker directed movie that was based on Mr Barker’s 1986 Novella The Hellbound Heart. I won’t go into plot details here, as I’d hope(?) pretty much every one reading this review will be aware of this 1980’s horror classic. The track opens with a whirling ‘n’ billow ‘wall’ that has ruining over it a sample from the movie where Pin head & his Cenobites are debating the fate of the films heroine. By the three minute mark the sample has disappeared, and we're left with a taut ‘wall’ that mixes together roaring ‘n’ billowing low-end with this locked smarting electro searing sustain. As this track carries on the pair send more pummelling & billowing layers into the mix making the whole thing very dense roasting & searing, from time to time the layers shift & drop back a bit, but pretty soon there roll back in place again. I’m sure also I can make out the Hellraiser music box sample here & there too with-in the ‘wall’. At round around the 11 minute mark there are more rapid noise spins & spirals added over the main mass of the ‘wall’. By around the 15 minute mark I can make out slow circles 'n' rings of more junk metal based noise making. At the 16 minute mark you get like a stuck & ringing shrill synth cord added to the mixture, which suggests a searing & panicked hell type vibe; there’s an almost stuck cluttering 'n' grating industrial edge to proceedings too. By the 21 minute mark the roasting & billowing set ‘wall’ is starting to falter & flicker slightly at the edges, but it never fully goes out, & it once more locks down into unrelenting walled noise as the other layers slowly shift & sear with-in the mass. Moving towards the 29th minute the ‘wall’ once more shifts to a slow baying & searing mixture of billowing roasting, chugging grinding & slow-mo sweeps of noise drone grains. The rest of track slowly but surely shifts along it’s axis, yet the dense, airless & roasting vibe of the track never departs. At around the 37 minute mark we thin down for another clear sample this time it’s of Cenobites managing to catch-up with Frank, shortly after this the track comes to an end.
Moving onto side two, and we have “Hellbound” which is themed around the 1988 sequel to Hellraiser which was directed by Tony Randel. This track starts with dramatic music & sound effects from the movie- with the music box elements indicating the opening of the box, then we get the sound of flying hooks, screams & hammerings. The ‘wall’ kicks in at the two minute mark, and it’s of the rapid scorching ‘n’ rumbling variety- much like the first sides ‘wall’ this is fairly active in it’s feel with sweeps of searing ‘n’ roasting noise, weaved in with rapid & a flamed junk like batters, and the odd hint of soundtrack elements too. At coming up to the 11 minute mark we get a more consistent mix of juddering almost harmonic pummelling & scorching hissing, but this pattern doesn’t last long before we're back into the firm yet slowly shifting walled noise landscape again. At just after the 14 minute mark we get a clear sample appearing from out of the ‘wall’, and this mixers together ominous soundtrack clunking and Pin head/ Cenobites talking to the films heroine. The sample ends around the 16 minute mark, and then we're back into the more active roasting, billowing & pummelling ‘wall’ territory. At the 22 minute mark we drop into a more consistent & clear ‘wall’ which brings together a fairly open hiss tone that is underfed by a distant pummelling, as this ‘wall’ progresses it stays fairly firm for around 5 minute before it once more starts to slow shift in it’s feel & layers- through it still remains fairly fixed with a mixture of swirling hiss & distant pummelling. By the 28th minute the ‘wall’ starts to shift more & more, before around the 29th minute falling into a mixture of sustain/ buzz yet oscillating synth drone which is snaked in & out by tolling judders. At just before the 32 minute mark we drop into another sample montage from the moive that takes in all manner of rapid clunking, human billows, ect this leads into a ‘wall’ submerge which mixers together baying ‘n’ roaring wind noise elements with galloping ‘n’ pummelling back drops. In it’s last few minute the track locks down into a aged yet rapid industrial tinged hissing & clanking sustain, before another sample montage from the movie taking in the evil doctor trying to attack the film heroine & more music box-samples.
This is one of my favourite Burial Ground linked releases thus far, and I’d say it’s up there with the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" release for it’s great ‘n’ creative mixture of active wall-making. Also Crown Of Bone adds a nice extra brutal & active edge to proceedings too. This is well worth tracking down if your into thick & searing yet layer active walled noise.