Teenagers eh, surly mini adults with loads of attitude and enormous chips on their shoulders thinking the world owes them a living and demanding attention when they haven't actually done anything! Well that's the usual view of our next generation but Desert Psychlist has discovered three such adolescents from Denver, Colarado who are actively doing something and doing it damn well!
White Dwarf are a three piece stoner/psych/doom band comprised of Issak Rhynes (guitar/vocals), Vaughn Morrison (drums) and Emilio Eslinger (bass) who, although barely old enough to shave, have just released an album titled "Through The Haze", an album that can give some of the scenes older, more wizened veterans more than a run for their money.
"Through The Haze" begins its journey into our hearts and minds with "The Witch" it's ominous and atmospheric intro of reverberating guitar, droning bass and occasional percussion slowly building in intensity and volume until reaching the point of no return and exploding into a rich and thick doomic refrain. Guitarist/vocalist Rhynes adds to this onslaught of groove raw. slightly strained vocal colouring screaming "You don't deserve what's been given to you" and "I can't wait to see you die" with a voice filled with a gravitas and maturity way beyond its years. Things take a dramatic left turn at around the songs halfway mark and the listener is suddenly thrown into a whirlpool of swirling doomic psych that finds Rhynes taking things to the close, utilising every effect and trick at his disposal, in a dazzling display of six-string pyrotechnics underneath which Eslinger and Morrison attempt to keep things grounded with booming liquid bass lines and tumultuous percussion. "High Mountain" follows and finds the band heading down a more traditional stoner doom path with Morrison laying down a backbeat of deliberate and heavy pounding percussion around which Eslinger weaves low growling bass. As well as filling every available space with crunching chords and swirling psychedelic solo's Rhynes here tailors his voice with a certain amount of echo giving the song an almost ethereal vibe much befitting its lyrical theme. Eslinger introduces next track "The Devil's Rejects" with some stunning bass work over which Rhynes adds touches of fractured guitar texturing with Morrison sitting just underneath complimenting the two guitarists with shimmering and restrained rhythmic accompaniment. The song slowly picks up pace but this time the band hold back from unleashing their full fury preferring instead to keep things low key and on one level something which is also reflected in Rhynes vocal, the guitarist/vocalist opting for a cleaner less aggressive tone to tell his story. "The Colossus" brings "Through The Haze" to a close with a song that although not obviously so, given its initial weighty doomic groove and mantra-like a vocals, is most definitely rooted in the blues, not convinced ...then just check out Rhynes scorching blues drenched solo in the final quarter played over Eslinger's walking bass line and Morrison's rock steady backbeat for proof.
Kids eh you take your eyes off 'em for five minutes and...... they make an album of stonkin' tunes you just can't ignore and need to listen to over and over again....little buggers!
,Check 'em out ....
© 2018 Frazer Jones
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