Burial Ground — The Exorcist
As with all this projects work this single 60.40 minute track is a mixture of often layer active walled noise & samples from the movie. The track opens with a great just under minute sample of one of the films priest's discussion the possessed girls use of bad language. Then we into the noise, & to start with we get these brief series of mini explosion & wind whistling textures- then pretty soon the ‘wall’ breaks out in full & brutal form. The ‘wall’ is built around a muffled galloping ‘n’ billow bound jitter, and a low-fi static locked rain storm like dwell-these tones are surrounded by this roaming yet trapped sort of wind texture. The 'walls' make-up gives this part of the track quite a three dimensional/ disorientating feeling, I guess like your trying to pull something out from another place or dimensions, much like the ritual of exoticism. As this ‘wall’ carries on the wind textures seem to subtle shift & bay in their feeling- yet the main structure of the ‘wall’ remains firm.
At the thirteen minute mark we break for another sample, this time it’s a twenty or so second sample of the possessed girls various layered voice spouting obscenities. Then we’re back into the noise, the ‘wall’ now has shifted to a rapid & raging mass of juddering static noise. With-in the ‘wall’ there are several layers of slightly different patterned static, and this creates a great amassing yet unbalancing vibe- as the grains switch back & forth in the ‘walls’ mass. By around the nineteen minute mark a sort of locked churning ‘n’ swimming vibe seems to be taking place at a layer level with-in the mass of the ‘wall’, and this is most effective. Around the twenty mintue mark the genreal pace of the track seems to get more rapid & intense in it’s attack, but I’m not sure if this is real or just a trick of the ‘wall’ it’s self.
At the twenty four minute mark we break for another twenty second sample, this time it’s of a priest roaring out the words “Let Jesus fuck you”. Then we’re back into HNW again, & this time is a mix of very deep & slight buffeting low-end judder & slightly thinner stuck almost crusty tipped jittering. The track now has a great feeling of brutal & amassed outpouring of intense textural rage. As this ‘wall’ continues, the layered textures nicely start to break down & shift slightly, like the subtle shifts with-in a rushing white-out storm.
At the thirty two minute mark we stop for another sample break, & this time it’s a slightly longer minute sample that finds on of the priest's having a discussion with the demon that’s possessing the girl. Then back in rolls the noise, this time the ‘walls’ built around a mix of even deeper & boring low-end descending noise drone, which has a slight billowing echo on it’s end to enhance the tunnelling mass of the tone. Around this main tone are thinner lines of simple & uniform mid-range crackling noise. This ‘wall’ has a fair ANW feel to it as the droning echo/reverb feel seems to nicely stretch & expanded out & out- yet the ‘wall’ never fully fades or hazes out. This section is one of my favourite moments in this track.
At forty six minute mark we stop for another minute sample break- this time it’s a great sample of the girl/demon been burned by holy water, as it’s many voices chatter & wail. Then we’re into the last ‘wall’ of the track, which mixers a wide & billowing low-end drone that’s played over by a thinner jitter/judder/ smarting static tone. The low-end tone has a great semi wavering feel to it that is most effective, while the rapid static pattern really pulls you in. In it’s last few minutes the textures seem to start to waver & break apart at their ends which nicely keeps you focused & pulled in for the end of the track, but also leaves you wishing for more ‘wall’ battering. We have one more short sample from the movie, as the two priests' discuss resting before the starting the Exorcism once again.
For me this is one of the most consistent, rewarding & replayble release from this La Crosse, Wisconsin based project thus far. As real attention has being paid though-out to the placing & the length of the film samples, the shifts of the ‘walls’, and the genreal flow/ tension with in the track. As of writing this review(mid July 2013) Altar Of Waste still have copies of this- it’s well worth a look if you enjoy well put together layer shifting HNW with a horror theme.