Deathwhite – Grey Everlasting
Deathwhite – Grey Everlasting
Season of Mist
Release Date: 10/06/22
Running Time: 48:03
Review By Laura Barnes
10/10
There are two kinds of heavy music.
The first kind of heavy music feels like a glorious sledgehammer to the skull. It is a heaviness that crushes you, eats you, wrestles you to your knees and demands that you worship it. This is the heaviness of Slayer, Sepultura, and Bolt Thrower. It is simple and straightforward; you know it when you see it.
The second kind of heavy music is more discreet, more intricate. It is like a tide that gradually washes over you before swallowing you whole, or an ancient Siren that beckons to you sweetly before she sends you to your doom. Heaviness of this sort is rare, although it can be found among bands like Woods of Ypres, Katatonia, Oceans of Slumber, and the entire genre of DSBM.
Deathwhite falls firmly into the second category.
“Grey Everlasting” is not an album for the fainthearted. It is raw, sombre, and digs deep into an intimate despair that many Doom metal bands fail to touch. Tracks ‘No Thought or Memory’ and ‘Formless’ are perfect examples of this. In these two songs, Deathwhite leads you into a lightless cavern so haunting that it quickly becomes difficult to distinguish between yourself and the darkness. In ‘No Thought or Memory’ the guitars twist and turn through a sorrowful riff as Deathwhite’s frontman beautifully sings his lamentation: ‘being nothing / nowhere / being nothing / nowhere’. This slow pace builds up a heavy tension that is gloriously released in a guitar solo that positively spits with wrath and humanity. If ‘No Thought or Memory’ is cavernous, then ‘Formless’ is labyrinthine. Tremonti-style guitar work accompanies the vocalist as he questions whether or not it is truly possible to comprehend the pain of another, eventually realising that ‘Night is now eternal / I have no name’. This feeling of isolation and depersonalisation is one that runs throughout the entirety of “Grey Everlasting”, and was, according to Deathwhite themselves, largely inspired by the experience of writing and recording during the pandemic.
Be assured, however, that “Grey Everlasting” does not contain any of the navel-gazing, on-the-nose platitudes that haunt an unfortunate amount of pandemic-inspired art. Alongside the pandemic, the band have also pointed to the “strife on the political and human rights front” of these past few years as a source of inspiration, and it shows. Although Deathwhite’s music is sophisticated and often subtle, there is also an unmistakable rage present throughout the album, particularly on tracks such as ‘So We Forget’ and ‘Earthtomb’. Alongside Deathwhite’s signature atmospheric sound, these tracks incorporate elements of extreme metal that really pushes “Grey Everlasting” to the next level. The use of blast beats across the album adds new layers of emotion to Deathwhite’s music and is, in my opinion, a huge step up from their previous work. Deathwhite’s progress is fully embodied on the darkly magical ‘White Sleep’. This is a truly magnificent track that sees each of Deathwhite’s musical and emotional layers coalesce into a beautiful whole. ‘White Sleep’ is one of the shorter songs on “Grey Everlasting”, yet somehow feels much longer, thanks to its ability to engage in sheer sonic storytelling. If you are afflicted with a tragically busy life and only have the time to listen to one song from this album, then I beg you, let it be this one.
When one opens their ears to “Grey Everlasting”, they should tread carefully. Deathwhite have taken thick doomy basslines and existential dread and fused them together to create a beast of phenomenal power. Feel free to gaze upon its glory, but remember this: it has the power to devour you whole.
‘White Sleep’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Nihil
02. Earthtomb
03. No Thought or Memory
04. Quietly, Suddenly
05. Grey Everlasting
06. White Sleep
07. Immemorial
08. Formless
09. So We Forget
10. Blood and Ruin
11. Asunder
LINKS:
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