Die Reitenden Leichen — Monolithic Resistance

German wall noise  project Die Reitenden Leichen has been one of the longer running & consistent projects to appear from within the euro HNW scene. The project has been active since 2009, and while it’s not as prolific as some, it’s slowly but surely released a flow of  quality release over the years that focus in on often dense, but often subtle layer shifting wall craft.  This  CDR release from summer 2015 appeared on the Breaching Static label, and it offers up two walls that each fall between the ten & fifteen minute mark, with a release total running time of  twenty seven minutes.

The blank CDR comes in a DVD case, and this takes in black & white artwork that features a lo-if mix of skulls, crossed axes, and murky inversed zombie movie stills. Both tracks here are untitled, and both are thick & dense examples of walled noise that have effective & rewarding layer shifts & details with-in their searing masses.

So the first track opens with a mix of the following: thick low-end galloping rumble, spraying & jittering static crunch, and a few billowing sub tones. As the track moves onto its third minute we more layers of galloping crisp-ness pouring into the ‘wall’, as the other layers are slowly shifting in a most necro yet skilful manner.  By around the 6th minute a higher pitched spinning/ grinding texture has appeared deep in the amassed & thick maelstrom of the ‘wall’, and around this are more sways of galloping & baying crisp ‘n’ crunch. As the track progresses the spinning/ grinding elements seems to shift up through the levels, and at times almost takes on a sour/ grating harmonic feel, as the rest of the ‘wall’ rages & roasts around it.

Track number two starts out as a layer detailed mix of the following: a churning ‘n’ crunching judder, a compacted & slightly slow jittering, a baying horn tone( which goes from brief to sustained), and a on/off  trail of dense yet crisp spurting.  As this track moves along the layers of texture are shifted in a most appealing manner, but the dense-ness of the whole thing never lessens- with DRL having perfect control over the seared mass of noise, creating a great slice of creative yet damn brutal & head shredding walled noise.

So in summing up Monolithic Resistance- both tracks here are great examples of Die Reitenden Leichen intense & full yet layer active  take on walled noise. And it’s great to see this project still putting out rewarding & consistent work, when so many older walled noise acts have fallen by the way side.