WHITE WALLS - Grandeur

In the fall of 2018, a rock-metal progressive festival named Euroblast took place in Germany and White Walls played on the second stage. I decided it was a good ideea to listen to all the bands that played at that festival (there were almost 40), first in order to discover new sounds, but also to see how the Romanian band from Constanta ranked against them. And I'm not subjective at all when I say that apart from Long Distance Calling (the headliner) and Soen (a band that I was just discovering), White Walls had by far the most original sound of the lot - fully deserving to present their music on the main stage, among the headliners. True, by then they had only released two albums (and a single), a music quite hard to digest by the large public. Perhaps this is the main reason why White Walls is presenting to us in 2020 a much more accessible music on Grandeur - to show to everybody that they can do it, and that they can do it at the highest level. What I really want to say is that White Walls have been heavily underestimated, with no reason whatsoever.

 

Grandeur is an album that I have long waited for and one that is totally surprising me with its levels of energy and novelty, even though this was to be expected from a band that have done the exact same thing since their first album Mad Man Circus (2010). Now we have catchy choruses, but also a high level production provided by Forrester Savell - a guy who, among others, handled the first two Karnivool albums (Sound Awake being, of course, among them). Even if personally I lean a little bit towards the fresh sound which we can hear on Mad Man Circus and especially on my favorite Escape Artist (2013), as well, Grandeur is a big progress for White Walls, because it gives the metal listeners exactly what they want to hear.

 

The sounds that can be heard on this album could be confused with the real math anytime. This assertion also applies to the new drummer, Theo Scrioșteanu, who is unexpectedly good and precise and has no problem in making us forget about the ex. drummer Marian Mihaila, as I personally would not have expected. This time the guitars are brought much further forward, but more distorted, too, compared with the previous two White Walls albums. But this is not a bad thing, on the contrary, Alexandru Dascălu is a genuine artist; at the same time Șerban's bass lines have not lost one bit of their quality, it's omnipresent on the album, but now you have to dig deeper for it under the thick layer of guitars. My favorite track is by far Month's End, a song where Eugen Brudaru is presenting his doctoral dissertation, especially when he sings in his clean voice. I really like Eye for an I, Holy Worse, Descend and Marche Funèbre, as well.

 

Even though on this album the band's originality nowadays is not at the highest level (it seems that the excellent production has its price), White Walls still outperforms and outclasses all of aforementioned bands that took the stage at Euroblast in 2018: most of them (attention, supported by important labels production) abusing a tired and vapid djent, without any trace of innovation. Well, not the same can be said about White Walls: since their establishment they have been a band that outdoned themselves and managed to offer the listener something unique, something ... truly grandiose.

Fantotzii Nota: 9.5