| Harsh noise wall | |
| Stylistic Origins: | Noise, harsh noise |
| Cultural Origins: | Mid-1990s, United States, Japan, France |
| Other Topics: | Japanoise |
Harsh noise wall, also known as wall noise, harsh noise, or HNW, is an extreme subgenre of noise music, described by music journalist Russell Williams as "a literal consistent, unflinching and enveloping wall of monolithic noise".[1]
Harsh noise wall features noises layered together to form a static sound. Harsh noise wall musician Sam McKinlay, also known as The Rita, considered the genre as "the purification of the Japanese harsh noise scene into a more refined crunch, which crystallizes the tonal qualities of distortion in a slow moving minimalistic texture."[2]
Despite largely staying underground, harsh noise wall has enjoyed a cult following among the noise music scene.