Burial Ground & Wet Dream Asphyxiation — House by the Cemetery
Burial Ground are from La Crosse Wisconsin, and have been active since 2011 releasing around 13 or so releases, all of the projects out put is themed around classic often gory horror movies. Wet Dream Asphyxiation are from Oregon, and have been active since 2012, the project has put out around 17 release, and this projects themes are astral projection, alien abductions, funeral hearses & beyond.
The tape is the result of a mail collaboration, with seemingly both parties build both ‘walls’ on offer here together. The tape artwork features pro-printed black & white cover which takes in on it’s front cover movie poster artwork from House by the Cemetery- this features an drawing of a up-raised arm holding a knife in front of a creepy looking ‘n’ lightening striking old mansion that just happens to have a graveyard in front of it. The inside cover features a picture of the film’s ghoulish & deformed killer Dr. Freudstein.
Side one is taken up by “Bizarre Surgical Practices”. The track starts out with samples from the movie, and these take in the sound of an victim going into the house then getting attacked by the good Dr, mixed with ghoulish moans & screams. At just under the three minute mark the ‘wall’ kicks –in, and it’s a mixture of low ‘n’ rapid billowing noise rage, which is battered by smaller crossing cutting static texturing that weaves out a even haze of cracking ‘n’ descending noise feast. As the track moves on it seemingly gets faster, more battering & thick with it’s attack; whether this is really happening or it’s just the trick of the ‘wall’ I’m unsure, but the tones do seem to pile on top of themselves more rapidly wrapping you in a bleak & totally encasing ‘wall’ of sound. By around the 16th minute the ‘wall’ seems to have taken on a more rapid galloping feel, as the billowing noise tones seems to have widened & deepened more. Also there seems to be a juddering ‘n’ slightly dragging sub-tone added in the ‘walls’ mix too- through this does seem rather fleeting in it’s feel. At the 23rd minute mark the ‘wall’ switchers to a mixture of low tumbling ‘n’ churning noise that is battered by rich cracking turns of white out static, but this only lasts around a minute before we once more return to the mixture of rapid billowing & cross cutting static. At the 31 minute mark we get another shift- this time the billow remains fixed as the crackling get more galloping, pressing & intense in it’s feel- by the 33rd minute we’ve returned back to the originally ‘wall’ again. The rest of the track seems to stay fairly fixed, and deviation free. All told it’s an effective enough ‘wall’, with the slight deviating shifts adding to the whole experience. In the last two minutes we dip down to more samples from the movie this time it’s a mixture of tense yet cheesy soundtracking & lots of ghoulish moans, flesh ripping's & female moans/screams.
Side two is taken up by “Freshly Severed Limbs”. And once again it starts off with movie samples, this time it’s one of the disappeared character's talking about Dr Freudstein & the people who have been lured into the house. Just around the two minute mark the ‘wall’ kicks in, and it’s a mixture of sliding ‘n’ rolling mid ranged noise drone that’s cut over by fixed crisp ‘n’ jittering sub-tones. The ‘wall’ is once again very dense & thick, but to me it seemed slightly less bleak, with an almost churning & cutting snow plough like moorish vibe to it. Around the 11 minute the sliding ‘n’ rolling tone seems to be getting slower & more compacted in it’s feel, which nicely deepens the entrancement of the track as you get pulled deeper & deeper into the bright white churning mass of the 'wall'. Yet the sliding ‘n’ rolling tone keeps on churning, and I’m sure I can make out some subtle buffeting back & forth tones that have now appeared in the ‘wall’. By around the 20 minute mark the sliding/ rolling tone seems more drilling, and the ‘wall’ becomes alot more hypnotic as if it’s boring deep into your head, and from here on the pair subtle alter the sub-tones ever so often. At near the thirty minute the track turns to a more focused & taut mixture of drilling subterranean like droning that's played over by smaller & neatly cut jittering static tones. We stop at the thirty tow minute mark for another sample- this time it’s of the movies child star calling for his nanny & mother as he trapped behind the basement door as Dr. Freudstein comes up the stairs. We get a mixture of panicked calls banging ect, and building music tension. Then more crying, some dialog & more ghoulish groans, all manner of flesh chewing’s & screams.….I’m not normally a big fan of over long movie samples in HNW tracks, but this is most effective & it plays out the rest of the tracks running time. Of the two sides this is my favourite ‘wall’, as I found it more entrancing & moorish….though both sides are effective.
All told this is a most brutal & worthy collaboration, with both tracks offering up dense ‘walls’ that have the oddly effective yet subtle textural shifts along there lengths. Let's hope these two decide to work together in the future, as their individual takes on wall craft really work well together.