Chuck Schuldiner Project

Sunday, September 8, 2019

White Ward - Love Exchange Failure



I think for the metal scene as a whole when I say many of us were blown away by White Ward's 2017 full length debut, Futility Report. I wasn't entirely sure how they were going to build on that for their second record. However, now that I have been able to spend some time with Love Exchange Failure, this saxophone driven black metal seems like they made some very good songwriting decisions. Their take on contemporary misanthropic black metal is unique, but it is tight enough that any fan of the genre will find something to love.

It's been said that the recipe for success is twofold. You need one part of your product to be something people are already familiar with, and the other part to be something totally new. With White Ward this takes the form of bringing all manner of post-metal and jazz influences on top of a fairly straightforward black metal backdrop. It makes for truly fascinating listening from a band who have clearly taken the genre to a bold new level. Love Exchange Failure proves that not only are there exciting new things to be done in black metal, but that the combination of sounds required to take it to the next level isn't even that absurd.

See - White Ward could have gone fully avantgarde with this new record, building on some of the truly brainy tropes of the last album. Instead Love Exchange Failure sees the band polishing their sound into something grandiose. Now the saxophone provides more padding than anything else. The creative guitar lines are visionary and truly different in their execution. The group has found a way to paint themselves not so much as avant garde black metal as much as they are a evolution on what has always worked - and I love it.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/whitewardofficial/

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