White Void – Anti Review

From time to time, we receive a band to review that dares us to label it and understand its sonancy. A band whose music defies all labeling and definitions of genre. The mix art rock with 1980s rock and some Metal punchs me in the face and makes think twice about my biases against the music that it isn’t that heavy, but has such musicallity. The truth is that I feeel kind of divided because one part of me tells me I’ve heard that album before, and the other tells me that this album is one of the most wondrous music I’ve ever heard. I’m also divided if I must pull the album off my player immeadiately or if I listen to it over and over again.

From where I’m standing, White Void and “Anti” might cause all these emotions in the fan as well as they did in me. In a way the band reminds a lot Marillion’s 1980’s Prog Rock and at the same time the fan will feel some touches of 1980s gothic rock. Two completely different influences that theoretically couldn’t work nicely but, in fact, work pretty fine in the real world of “Anti.” To this burning cauldron White Void added some Metal influences as the fan can check it out in “The Shovel and the Cross” and “Where You Go, You’ll Bring Nothing,” a pretty awkward combination, if you ask me. Those tracks make a wondrous combination of the emotional power Metal features deliver and the sweet and gentle features and textures Prog Rock means. I keep on trying to recall which band I know that sounds similar to White Void. Sorry, the right question should be to which band White Void are sonically related. I guess the keyboards and the vocals are the elements that bring them near all those bands I quoted before, but, I guess, the general feeling is somewhere in the mid-1980s and all its tradition. The way guitars and keyboards are arranged in “There Is No Freedom But the End” and in all the album is really something to mention. In certain ways, they have the same prominance.

White Void aren’t the band that I would love, I agree with that. My fan may be very curious on why I liked them so much. The answer is not that easy. I guess that the combination of all those elements sparked my attention to the band. To me the band sounds unique even though I’m able to find many references to their music. However, references are just references and the way they are mixed tells everything about their sonancy. The chords are the same to everyone, the way they are combined makes all the difference. And the music.

White Void “Anti” will be released on March 12th via Nuclear Blast Records.

Track Listing:

1. Do. Not. Sleep
2. There Is No Freedom But the End
3. Where You Go, You’ll Bring Nothing
4. The Shovel and the Cross
5. This Apocalypse Is For You
6. All Chains Rust, All Men Die
7. The F*cking Violence of Love
8. The Air Was Thick With Smoke

Watch “The Shovel and the Cross” official music video here: