Ok, I hear you! It feels long overdue to dedicate a couple of words to the Ukranian band White Ward and their new, almost seventy minutes long album "False Light" here!
They had already established a unique style which mixes harsh black metal directly with smooth saxophone doomjazz several releases ago, and it still doesn't cease to impress how seamless this unlikely combination works.
So if the band just did more of the same - with the usual little increase in skill and experience - every fan would already be happy, right?
Well, White Ward did a couple of steps more.
They had already established a unique style which mixes harsh black metal directly with smooth saxophone doomjazz several releases ago, and it still doesn't cease to impress how seamless this unlikely combination works.
So if the band just did more of the same - with the usual little increase in skill and experience - every fan would already be happy, right?
Well, White Ward did a couple of steps more.
WHITE WARD - False Light (Digibook CD) (2022)
While they didn't heave a similarly long break between releases, the easiest point of reference to describe White Ward's evolution is the step which the Romanians Dordeduh took on their phenomenal 2021 album "Har".
"False Light" also is an album which presents the unique sound of its artists in a powerful perfectionist production, huge and accessible at the same time. It sees the band expanding their musical language without sacrificing their core sound of ferocious black metal, smooth Bohren & der Club of Gore saxophone darkjazz and the floating blackgaze between these polarities.
But the long running time offers them a lot of space to dip their toes into other currents, often only briefly, but always very purposeful. Aided by several guest singers and additional guest musicians on trumpet, keys and double bass White Ward aren't afraid to incorporate anything they deem fitting into their already wide sonic palette. So you get glimpses into more hymnic metal, even some guitar hero affectations, gothic rock and other neon pink sprinkles from the 1980s as well as as 1990s grooves. Most of the time it's already over once you realize it happens, but it's all great and adds to the phantastically big and broad, majestic feeling this album exudes.
The transcendently overarching musical approach is mirrored by a very wide and serious concept, both visually and lyrically. Indeed one of the very few little problems I have with "False Light" are the sometimes very unintelligible harsh vocals. It's not at all that they sound bad - even if there are a couple of verses, where the arrangement could be a little more complex to match the level of the instrumentals -, but it's a bit pointless to spend so much effort in creating a meaningful narration, when you sometimes can't even follow it while you're reading along. Can we please call this the Bell Witch paradox?
Consequently I'm not going to dive too deep into the lyrical content, which is explained quite thoroughly in the liner notes of the beautiful digibook CD edition. It spans around themes of alienation, environmental destruction, power abuse, the whole human condition in a very ambitious manner. Who would expect a song like "Silence Circles", which seeks to empower victims of domestic abuse on a black metal album? That's not your usual howling to the frost moon.
From the epic opener, which already previews all the defining qualities of the album - appropriately called "Leviathan" -, to the solemm outro "Downfall" White Ward created a masterpiece here.
"False Light" should rightfully propel them into higher spheres of recognition. But as their home country is invaded by that asshole from Moscow that's of course not on the top of the wishes I have for the future of this band.
"False Light" also is an album which presents the unique sound of its artists in a powerful perfectionist production, huge and accessible at the same time. It sees the band expanding their musical language without sacrificing their core sound of ferocious black metal, smooth Bohren & der Club of Gore saxophone darkjazz and the floating blackgaze between these polarities.
But the long running time offers them a lot of space to dip their toes into other currents, often only briefly, but always very purposeful. Aided by several guest singers and additional guest musicians on trumpet, keys and double bass White Ward aren't afraid to incorporate anything they deem fitting into their already wide sonic palette. So you get glimpses into more hymnic metal, even some guitar hero affectations, gothic rock and other neon pink sprinkles from the 1980s as well as as 1990s grooves. Most of the time it's already over once you realize it happens, but it's all great and adds to the phantastically big and broad, majestic feeling this album exudes.
The transcendently overarching musical approach is mirrored by a very wide and serious concept, both visually and lyrically. Indeed one of the very few little problems I have with "False Light" are the sometimes very unintelligible harsh vocals. It's not at all that they sound bad - even if there are a couple of verses, where the arrangement could be a little more complex to match the level of the instrumentals -, but it's a bit pointless to spend so much effort in creating a meaningful narration, when you sometimes can't even follow it while you're reading along. Can we please call this the Bell Witch paradox?
Consequently I'm not going to dive too deep into the lyrical content, which is explained quite thoroughly in the liner notes of the beautiful digibook CD edition. It spans around themes of alienation, environmental destruction, power abuse, the whole human condition in a very ambitious manner. Who would expect a song like "Silence Circles", which seeks to empower victims of domestic abuse on a black metal album? That's not your usual howling to the frost moon.
From the epic opener, which already previews all the defining qualities of the album - appropriately called "Leviathan" -, to the solemm outro "Downfall" White Ward created a masterpiece here.
"False Light" should rightfully propel them into higher spheres of recognition. But as their home country is invaded by that asshole from Moscow that's of course not on the top of the wishes I have for the future of this band.
"It will never be so quiet here again
Unless we all fall
Unless the last tear drops down
The last drop of human blood disappears"
("Phoenix")
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