Never set boundaries to music. White Ward is an example.
Created in 2012 in Ukraine, the band is composed of Yuriy Kazaryan (guitar), Andrey Pechatkin (bass/vocals), Yevhenii Karamushko (drums, Sangfroid, Schattenfall), Mykola Jack (guitar) and Dima Dudko (saxophone) for the release of Debemur Morti, and EP that comes after two full-length, helped by Mykola Lebed (Mark Tokar Trio) on piano.
The band called Lars Are Nedland (Borknagar, Solefald, ex-Carpathian Forest) on vocals to appear on Debemur Morti, the first song. The band’s style stays into a seizing Post-Black completed by a heady saxophone that creates an interesting and disturbing contrast, but we feel this personal touch that comes to life between screams, clean vocals and catchy elements, then the break revives an energetic rhythmic completed by saxophone before Embers. The song is quite slow and oppressive, it plays on melancholic tones brought by those deep tones, then Black Metal possesses musicians again. The two universes meet and clash, then they walk together and split up before offering an intense final on all levels.
White Ward never made conventional stuff. If Debemur Morti is your first approach with the band, it will surprise you and captivate you. If it’s not, you will understand this pain, this viscerality and this blackness.
90/100