Various HNW Artists — Eyjafjallajökull

The first European Harsh Noise Wall festival had been planned to have taken place on the 17 April 2010 in Paris, France. It was sadly cancelled due to the eruption of volcano Eyjafjöll under the glacier Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, which blocked all European flights for over a week and meant none of the artists could get to the festival. This two disc set commemorates the festival that never was in splendid fashion, as it features a track from each project that was due to have played at the fest.

This whole set is wonderful throught-out and put together with two high quality CDR’s feature lightscribe  artwork. Also in side the DVD double box we get: an original flyer that was printed up for the fest, An original badge that was due to have been sold at the fest and a 10g bag of real volcanic ash direct from Iceland!. It's all toping off with a double sided textured art card inlay featuring track listing and genreal fest info.

Each of eleven tracks featured here use the same set-up that each artists would have used for the festival which really does it’s best the recreate what the fest might have been like from the comfort of your own home. The set features a track a piece from the follow know to lesser know European based HNW acts: Vomir & Ecoute La Merde, A View From Nihil, Unearthed, Skönhet ,Svartvit, Terminal Erection, Indch Libertine,TFT, Fukte, Die Reitenden Leichen and Hour Of The Wolf. Each project offers up a track that runs between the nine to fifteen minute mark a piece, which is near to the length that each projects set would have been if they’d played the fest. Subject wise each track  here focus in on the frustration each artist felt when they couldn’t participate in the fest.

The whole set offers-up a very good quality bound selection of  shorter HNW tracks with the whole collection been very consistent and rewarding through-out. But a few of my favourite moments come in the form of: the tight ‘n’ tense brooding static jitter & licked bass drone of Irish project A View From Nihil’s “Bolcán I + II”.  The persistent and heavy mid-paced static rain meets slight judder of  “Ashes” from Dutch based project Svartvit. The hissing static white-out ‘n’ rolling  nastiness of “Odin Hates Us” by Italian bondage masked wearing noisetormentor  Indch Libertine. And the grim and pained feedback sun rise meets tense and tight jittering static of German based Die Reitenden Leichen track “Paris Decays”

So a very well rounded, consistent & professional looking HNW release that very nicely commemorates and celebrates the festival that sadly never was. Of course this is a must have item for anyone interested in the HNW scene, but also this would work well as a primmer for  those who have yet to experience the brutal, yet cocooning wonder of really good Harsh Noise Wall.