May Cause Death,/Hana Haruna — Split

Here’s a grimly horror-focused wall noise split bringing together two US projects. There’s Strom Lake, Iowa’s May Cause Death, who severs up two decidedly baying & nasty walls. And Portland’s Hana Haruna, who presents us with more haunted, yet still seared wall-craft.

It’s a digital-only release on Portland’s Basement Corner Emissions. For the cover artwork, we get an illustration of a blood-soaked altar in a moonlit forest glade. The release can be found here 

We open with two tracks from May Cause Death- each of which hits around the fourteen to fifteen-minute mark. First up is “Carnage”, which opens with just under a minute of pig squeals and weird animistic grunts. Then we’re into the ‘wall’ which is based around crude billowing, rapidly rattling knocks, and murky, textural chops. A very mean & nasty ‘wall’.  Next is “Savage First” which opens with an old-sounding man apologising for having to feed someone to the pigs, with this warbling/ sad melody playing over the top, and distant pig grunts. We then drop into the ‘wall’ where we find a blend of mid to crisp billowings, loose bass drone rolling, and a selection of skittering grain.

Next, of course, we’re onto the two Hana Haruna tracks. First is “The Forest”, here we find an upfront squiggle and screech, underfed by an eerie mix of lightly reverberating gong simmer and general ambient unease. Next is “The Swamp” where we find a less defined mix of mid-range squiggle ’n’ rattle, light billowing drone flow, and smaller high-range chop & slice texturing. Both tracks are nicely seared, yet effectively atmospheric.

In finishing, this split blends cruder & roughshod walling, with the more atmospheric if seared wall-craft for a worthwhile split.