Werewolf Jerusalem/The Black Scorpio Underground – Split C30

Hatemail Records

This one is delivered in some rather badly arranged packaging. Most immediately noticeable is that the artwork is blurry and pixelated in addition to not being very well designed. The release also consists of only one cassette yet it is in a box that is made for two. Not a huge issue but it’s just not very well executed.

Werewolf Jerusalem is the project of Richard Ramirez who is also responsible for the infamous noise unit Black Leather Jesus. In this split Ramirez does exactly what it seems he has set out to do with his Werewolf Jerusalem project. He creates walls of chunky noise that settle into passages of stasis until they alternate to yet another noise texture which then does the same thing.

The Black Scorpio Underground is a project of which I am unfamiliar. They kick things off with thick industrial throbs and layers of noise accompanying. One element that I don’t really get is the random guitar solo in the middle of the track. It more or less totally ruins things. Is this a rock song? Why is someone wailing on a guitar out of the blue in an industrial track? It sounds bad, doesn’t make sense. Maybe they just ran out of ideas, the reason for doing something like this is over my head – I can only assume they know something I don’t. Interest is gained a touch when things slow down and various weird sounds are introduced. Explosions of lo-fi noise make much more sense in this context.

I’m sure there are people out there who dig this sort of thing but this release is clearly not for me. The noise is lo-fi, raw and doesn’t seem to be very well inspired or interesting to me. Everything from the packaging down to the sounds strikes me as mediocre.

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