Album Review: White Walls - Grandeur (2020)
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| Picture Credit: White Walls Artwork: Radu Damian |
White Walls - Grandeur
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Label: selfrelease
Format: CD / Digital
Length: 54:01
Genre: Alternative Metal / Progressive Metalcore
Origin: Constanța, Romania
According to the stats, MangoWave has a lot of readers from Romania. Isn't it strange that this is the first review of a Romanian band then? Anyways, let me introduce you to "Grandeur", the newest release by Constanța's White Walls. Better late than never, I guess.
White Walls are a quartet from the shores of the Black sea in Eastern Romania. The band consists of Theodor-Ștefan Scrioșteanu (drums, backing vocals), Șerban-Ionuț Georgescu (bass, backing vocals), Virgil Eugen Brudaru (vocals), and Alexandru Eduard Dascălu (guitar). Together they play a very versatile and colourful mix of styles and genres. The sound on "Grandeur" combines the melancholic atmosphere of Alternative Metal with intense Metalcore breaks and colourful Prog Metal riffing.
It is the dichotomies that make this album so exciting. Melodic passages with clean vocals build up tension while the massive bass carries them forward and lets them erupt in brachial Metalcore riffs with guttural screams. And as a steady companion to those themes there is the omnipresent Prog Metal atmosphere that hovers between the ambivalent soundscape and paints it with colourful brushes.
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| Picture Credit: White Walls |
The highly progressive approach towards Metalcore and Alternative Metal done by White Walls is very refreshing. Compared to many Metalcore artists who mainly focus on brutal breaks and sheer force, the Romanian quartet has created an intelligent mix of smooth and brachial music by using various sophisticated elements. The song 'Starfish Crown' (see video above) might the best example on how White Walls manage to merge atmospheric Prog Metal without neglecting the intensity of the Metalcore impact.
Even though the genres are completely different, I am reminded of Slovenian Black Metal band Dekadent. Both bands prove that their genres are by far not exhausted and can be beautified by sophisticated ideas. "Grandeur" by White Walls is a very special and intelligent Progressive Metalcore release.
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