Russian artist Serghey Pakhomov (Train Cemetery) has established himself as a contemporary master of HNW with avid and thorough exploration of all it's forms and textures, paying homage to the forefathers and delving further into new territories, paving the way for things yet to be fully explored by others in the genre.

There are individual noise artists who have clearly carved out their own niche sound world, and that is to be celebrated, but Harsh Noise Wall is a style that is about continued study of an established idea. Amplifying, dissecting and honing in on specific sounds that you'd want to hear go on forever. Of course there are going to be similarities between artists and the potential for comments about how "it all sounds the same"...but that's kind of the point, or at least not a major concern, in an effort to keep the walls alive with little need for progress or change (and there really is no room to grow from here, it's all been done and will be done again...it's just a matter of coming up with new texture combinations and transitions). Yes of course there is plenty of half-assed "bad" HNW, but believe it or not, for those with the obsessive ear for it, when it's done well you can really tell.

From dense unchanging crunch to extremely sparse minimalism and everything in between, Serghey has obsessively embraced HNW almost exclusively, capturing his own rendition of the aspects he finds most appealing and relentlessly perpetuating them.

Similarly to Richard Ramirez (an undoubted influence), Serghey often comes up with new monikors for a large majority of his output, and one of my personal favorites is Lonely Woman Goes To Kill, which finds him utilizing nearly all strains of the aforementioned tonal aspects of HNW within it's six slowburning monoliths of sound, gradually crawling, shifting and transforming like magma, building up and dwindling down over each tracks 40+ minute runtime and always ending up somewhere different then they began.

I can understand why some people don't have the palette for HNW, and I've seen others claim "they just don't get it", but I can accept it's not for everyone and that is just fine. Not everyone has the attention span or appreciation for Kurosawa or Tarkovsky films either, but for those who do it can be a very rewarding and cathartic experience...similarly, some individuals just want a quick animalistic fuck and others practice tantric sex. For me there is a time, place and mood for everything and that's why I like so many types of noise, I need variety and something to cater to my fluctuating moods. Sometimes I'm hyper and want to blast a c10 of cut-up noise, other times I'm reading or doing graphic design for hours and would prefer slower minimal sounds in the background to help suspend my focus.

So whether you love Harsh Noise Wall, think it sucks, are just getting into it or are unsure how you feel about it, this release is an essential document incorporating nearly everything celebrated about the genre.

I challenge you to attempt to immerse yourself in the 4+ hour journey that is "Coffin Nail/Stray Bullet".