Cult Of The Smiling Jesus — Songs Of Hate
The cdr has eight untitled tracks of Harsh Noise Walls, which range in duration from fifteen minutes to a compact one minute; and whilst sixty-four seconds (to be precise) is incredibly short for HNW, its worth reflecting on the fact that even fifteen minutes is a short wall by most standards. The tracks run into each other, without gaps; and this makes for some wonderful jolts and changes - something, I must confess, I’m a big fan of. “Songs of Hate” opens with a muffled wall, that sounds like its crumbling through the speakers. Underneath the muffling, it actually sounds like it could be quite crunchy and detailed; but instead its rather airy and hissy. After several minutes of this, a second, more scourging, track appears; tumbling and rumbling. This wall is much more agitated and forceful, but again suffers somewhat from a recording that isn’t crystal clear; which is a shame, as there are some interesting textures lurking just below the treble frequencies. The third track piles on greater intensity, spitting and rasping enough to overcome any restraint posed by the production. Its a rampaging eight minutes, with an effective, brooding bass drone beneath the surface.The next piece is a mere two minutes, and cuts back to calmer textures - albeit distressed textures, which remind me of waterfalls and the crackle of pylons. After this short respite, the fifth wall jolts in with a much more aggressive attack; but rather than being grating, it has a rather fizzy feel to its treble elements, which softens the texture. Its perhaps a little flimsy, a little “loose” - something which the next track alters immediately. The sixth piece is very a compressed, pressurised wall; with a similar fizziness to before, but now grainier and more detailed. Some of these treble sections almost have an bit-crushed sound to them. If you concentrate your ears, you can find a nice crackling texture lurking quite deep; but, like the previous track, the treble frequencies run the risk of becoming a mere “wash”… The seventh, and shortest, track on the cdr, layers a minute of rattling treble over the previous wall elements. Again, there is the risk of it becoming a “wash”, but it has enough harshly shimmering detail to become quite an immersive texture. “Songs of Hate” finishes with its longest wall - the fifteen minute long track. This is a low end crawl, with some dirty mid-frequencies - the overall effect is very akin to the sound of warm, flickering flames. Its an effective low-key end to the collage of walls.
Taken separately, none of the tracks are truly staggering; but by using shorter walls and piecing them together as Cult Of The Smiling Jesus have, an interesting album has been crafted. The collision between different walls is very satisfying, and the use of extremely short tracks lends the whole affair an interesting structure. So whilst it isn’t a masterclass in wall-making, it remains an inspiring listen