•
Rating:
Ten tracks, twenty-two minutes; genre: punk.
These few elements would be enough to make me run away from the latest work of White Lung, an extremely fiery trio from Vancouver formed in 2006 and with “Deep Fantasy” reaching their third record release. But as it sometimes happens, partly to “shake up my metabolism”, partly out of boredom/curiosity, I decide to sample some unusual dishes for my palate. And “Deep Fantasy” is simply the right album at the right time; I could go on and on trying to justify myself, but the fact is that “Deep Fantasy” appealed to me right from the start.
Let's start with Kenneth William, who takes charge of guitars and bass. So, I like to look at this figure, author of an epileptic guitar style that manifests in bone-crushing riffs, sudden flights, and melodic diversions, as the Van Halen of punk. Sure, to talk about a virtuoso of the six strings in such a context is excessive, but if punk generally rhymes with zero-technical-preparation, in this case, it's to be noted that his work, which doesn't focus solely on rhythm, but also includes a series of embellishments (games with harmonics, melodic lines that seem to hail from the universe of classic heavy metal, even an arpeggio in the concluding “In Your Home”!) is nothing short of brilliant. Sure, you might say, it's really easy not to make mistakes when you're moving within the narrow space of two minutes, especially if you employ a lowered tuning, saturated sounds, and a wall of sound borrowed more from hardcore that led directly to thrash-metal (who said Discharge?). The fact remains that William truly delivers a performance above average, certainly repeating himself, but also climbing, convincing, along more slippery paths.
Let's move on to Miss Anne-Marie Vassiliou, by profession drummer. If the fact that a gentle lady is sitting behind the skins brings to mind a tupa-tupa weak and colorless, executed with approximation, well, you are greatly mistaken! Vassiliou runs fast, head down, with sharp hits on the tom-toms, kick drum in evidence, she goes straight like a train, hitting with the determination and precision of a thrash-metal drummer who works as a dockworker by day.
We then come to Mish Way: Way is a screamer like many others (imagine a Courtney Love having her ovaries ripped out with teeth), but considering the power of the musical apparatus, we can see her charge, her brazenness, her vocal versatility as the classic icing on the cake: her vocals wild, her protest lyrics focused on issues of feminism, sex, drugs, violence remain the true punk element in an overall composite and substantial offering that ultimately transcends the genre's boundaries.
The Canadian band, with their third work, thus reaches maturity: a maturity given by the perfect balance between violence and writing, urgency and research, all enhanced by a production with both powerful and clear sounds. Criticized more for prevention or prejudice (punk purists will disdain, metalheads will sneer indignantly, and anyone over twenty-five will look elsewhere, dismissing the three as yet another insubstantial new sensation for bleached-haired teens with nose rings), White Lung produces a piece of work that in its small way is perfect.
The fact is that the tracks work, they ooze adrenaline, they are dynamic, epic, and when Way hits the right vocal inflection, they become really engaging. My favorite? Probably the most melodic, the already mentioned “In Your Home”, which concludes everything with something that almost seems like hard-rock stretched to spasms. But all the tracks have their reason: the opener “Drown with the Monster”, with dark and stormy tones worthy of a pounding and reiterative thrash (at times it reminds me of the more hardcore-looking Sodom), already says everything that needs to be said. The second track “Down It Goes”, which starts as the previous one ended, raises the ante, yet introduces a melodic vein that brings our sound back to the ranks of punk in its canon form (but be careful: the drums keep beating hard!). And what about the violently fast “Face Down” that for an instant hosts a sizzling riff that perhaps evokes that bastardized black metal we increasingly find in non-extreme fields? Or “I Believe You”, another highlight of the album? Here it’s Way’s great performance that makes the difference, with that gurgled tonsil-tearing chorus I'd really like to hear live. The album should be gulped down in one go, the tracks laid out in a criminal sequence that leaves little time for reflection, crushing the listener between Way's hysterical soliloquies, her throat moving anarchically and mercilessly for itself, and a solid musical base that pulses obsessively, but which on the very tracks of this obsessiveness builds, with measured intent, an impressive series of progressions and variations that is the true added value of this interesting 2014 release.
Then oh, you can also be the armchair punk/metalheads and keep saying the obvious, like how great the Dead Kennedys were; if I were you, I’d still give “Pure Fantasy” a listen: worst case scenario, you’ll have wasted twenty minutes...
These few elements would be enough to make me run away from the latest work of White Lung, an extremely fiery trio from Vancouver formed in 2006 and with “Deep Fantasy” reaching their third record release. But as it sometimes happens, partly to “shake up my metabolism”, partly out of boredom/curiosity, I decide to sample some unusual dishes for my palate. And “Deep Fantasy” is simply the right album at the right time; I could go on and on trying to justify myself, but the fact is that “Deep Fantasy” appealed to me right from the start.
Let's start with Kenneth William, who takes charge of guitars and bass. So, I like to look at this figure, author of an epileptic guitar style that manifests in bone-crushing riffs, sudden flights, and melodic diversions, as the Van Halen of punk. Sure, to talk about a virtuoso of the six strings in such a context is excessive, but if punk generally rhymes with zero-technical-preparation, in this case, it's to be noted that his work, which doesn't focus solely on rhythm, but also includes a series of embellishments (games with harmonics, melodic lines that seem to hail from the universe of classic heavy metal, even an arpeggio in the concluding “In Your Home”!) is nothing short of brilliant. Sure, you might say, it's really easy not to make mistakes when you're moving within the narrow space of two minutes, especially if you employ a lowered tuning, saturated sounds, and a wall of sound borrowed more from hardcore that led directly to thrash-metal (who said Discharge?). The fact remains that William truly delivers a performance above average, certainly repeating himself, but also climbing, convincing, along more slippery paths.
Let's move on to Miss Anne-Marie Vassiliou, by profession drummer. If the fact that a gentle lady is sitting behind the skins brings to mind a tupa-tupa weak and colorless, executed with approximation, well, you are greatly mistaken! Vassiliou runs fast, head down, with sharp hits on the tom-toms, kick drum in evidence, she goes straight like a train, hitting with the determination and precision of a thrash-metal drummer who works as a dockworker by day.
We then come to Mish Way: Way is a screamer like many others (imagine a Courtney Love having her ovaries ripped out with teeth), but considering the power of the musical apparatus, we can see her charge, her brazenness, her vocal versatility as the classic icing on the cake: her vocals wild, her protest lyrics focused on issues of feminism, sex, drugs, violence remain the true punk element in an overall composite and substantial offering that ultimately transcends the genre's boundaries.
The Canadian band, with their third work, thus reaches maturity: a maturity given by the perfect balance between violence and writing, urgency and research, all enhanced by a production with both powerful and clear sounds. Criticized more for prevention or prejudice (punk purists will disdain, metalheads will sneer indignantly, and anyone over twenty-five will look elsewhere, dismissing the three as yet another insubstantial new sensation for bleached-haired teens with nose rings), White Lung produces a piece of work that in its small way is perfect.
The fact is that the tracks work, they ooze adrenaline, they are dynamic, epic, and when Way hits the right vocal inflection, they become really engaging. My favorite? Probably the most melodic, the already mentioned “In Your Home”, which concludes everything with something that almost seems like hard-rock stretched to spasms. But all the tracks have their reason: the opener “Drown with the Monster”, with dark and stormy tones worthy of a pounding and reiterative thrash (at times it reminds me of the more hardcore-looking Sodom), already says everything that needs to be said. The second track “Down It Goes”, which starts as the previous one ended, raises the ante, yet introduces a melodic vein that brings our sound back to the ranks of punk in its canon form (but be careful: the drums keep beating hard!). And what about the violently fast “Face Down” that for an instant hosts a sizzling riff that perhaps evokes that bastardized black metal we increasingly find in non-extreme fields? Or “I Believe You”, another highlight of the album? Here it’s Way’s great performance that makes the difference, with that gurgled tonsil-tearing chorus I'd really like to hear live. The album should be gulped down in one go, the tracks laid out in a criminal sequence that leaves little time for reflection, crushing the listener between Way's hysterical soliloquies, her throat moving anarchically and mercilessly for itself, and a solid musical base that pulses obsessively, but which on the very tracks of this obsessiveness builds, with measured intent, an impressive series of progressions and variations that is the true added value of this interesting 2014 release.
Then oh, you can also be the armchair punk/metalheads and keep saying the obvious, like how great the Dead Kennedys were; if I were you, I’d still give “Pure Fantasy” a listen: worst case scenario, you’ll have wasted twenty minutes...
Tracklist and Videos
Loading comments slowly
