To cut to the quick, its really quite a similar album to its predecessor: it combines very short pieces with longer tracks - the longest of these being a “short” (for HNW) thirteen minutes; and it jumps from track to track (all of which are untitled) without any gaps. On “Songs Of Hate”, this created very satisfying jolts; but here, interestingly, some of the transitions from one track to another are nearly seamless. The album starts off with a great track of scuffing noise: hard chunks of lower-mid frequencies on a background of airy hiss - it’s like something being dragged behind a car. The next track is less obviously abrasive, but much more spacious - a thick, deep wall of murky noise. It’s dominated by more lower-mid frequencies, though this time they come in the form of a speeding crunch; with a hard bass that lurks, threatening to break through and a thin, wispy crackle laid over the whole piece. Its a very well constructed piece, that could easily continue for much longer than the eight minutes it does. The third track on “Songs Of Love” has a curious stereo split, with one channel a fizzy, static wall and the other a jittering texture over a subdued bed of noise. It makes for an intriguing listen. Although you might think this sounds like merely an interesting and “worthwhile” experiment, its actually a very enjoyable track; as the piece progresses, the low end becomes more pronounced - adding a subtle oppressiveness to the atmosphere. After the jolt into the stereo-field of the third piece, the fourth track jumps into being with more of a change in tone. Its one of the very short pieces on the release, being just over a minute in length, and curiously has much the same set up as the preceding track: jitter versus wall. Here, though, both elements are more restrained and controlled; the jittering textures sounding like a beautiful itching. The next piece from Cult Of The Smiling Jesus restores more of a stereo balance, with the previously jittering channel opening out to a thundering, linear charge. Again, a very well constructed, “full” wall. Just shy of three minutes, the following track combines a harsh trebly fizz with a scraping mid-frequency scuffing; before exploding into the unusual textures of the seventh piece on the album. This embeds a pulsating electronic drone into a background wall and despite the synth-like, bubbling feedback dominating, you can hear that this wall is truly rough and hard. The release closes with its longest piece: a bass-led scourge of a track, which pummels like a juggernaut with trebly crackle dancing all over it - arguably the most “stereotypical” HNW piece here. This should be seen as a compliment, showing Cult Of The Smiling Jesus to be just as capable of creating “good, old-fashioned walls” as they are of experimenting.

In many respects, I’m driven to the same conclusions as I was with this album’s predecessor: essentially, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But the tracks here are of a higher quality, overall, than on “Songs Of Hate”; with better construction and further experimentation - I hope its a trajectory that Cult Of The Smiling Jesus continues on…