Ergastolo — Ergastolo

Here’s a self-titled debut album from this new Italian wall noise project, which focuses on creating bass grinding and static searing HNW. The digital album consists of four fifteen-minute tracks, with a total runtime of one hour.

The rather murky & monochrome cover art seems to depict a rubbish-strewn/ grimy floor, where there are two bodies on the floor- one is headless in dirty jeans and a white T-shirt, and the other is bearded/ dressed all in black. This is surrounded by crude typewriter-like blood red and black texts. Drop in here to hear it for yourself.

First out of the bag is “Delitto contro la personalita dello Stato”. Here we find a speedily rolling bass purr, rapid jittering, and baying judder- edged with searing static & buzzing bass subtones. “Omicidio volontario aggravato” is next- here the bass feels more pummelling in it’s attacked- this is topped with compressed/ smaller rattling static grain. Towards the end of the track, the bass turns more billowing- with the static more sheared & ear-roasting.

The third track, “Sequestro di persona a scopo di terrorismo” finds the bass more sustained/ billowing in its attack; this is joined by a thinner jitter static flow. This track remains more firmly fed than the previous track. The album is finished off with “Traffico transnazionale di esseri umani “ here the bass has a searing, constantly pouring Quilty- this added to an uneven static bound crackle ‘n’ flow, and I’d say this is the most appealing/ interesting of the four tracks here- as the blending in of the bass element & uneven static flow is so rewarding.

I’d say Ergastolo is a decent enough debut, with the project having a fairly distinctive sound. Yes, said sound is a little samey in places, so if the project releases something else, some thought will have to be put into more variation. It’s always great to see a new wall noise project appearing on the scene, and I must say it’s been a fair time since we got anything appearing from Italy