Five guys from Tasikmalaya, Indonesia going by the name Whitehovse, Chandra (vocals); Gilang (lead guitar); Fahmi (rhythm guitar); Nizar (bass), and Ropik (drums), have just released, what is in our opinion, is one of the best stoner, sludge, doom, heavy psych albums to ever come out of the Indonesian underground scene. Now you maybe thinking that is a bold statement, especially given that not a whole lot of Indonesian releases make their way to western ears, but Desert Psychlist is in the privileged position of being sent albums from all over the world so we have been lucky enough to hear A LOT of albums from bands residing in this particular corner of the world and Whitehovse's debut "The Mighty One" is by far one of the finest.
"Endless Sorrow" opens this debut's account, an atmospheric yet heavy tome that totally justifies the various genre tags we ascribed to Whitehovse's sound in this reviews opening piece. The song begins in tranquil lysergic/psychedelic waters, all spacious and moody, but then proceeds to get heavier and more metallic as it progresses with those elements of doominosity and metal sludge-iness becoming more and more pronounced. "Endless Sorrow" is followed almost immediately by "Falling Crown" and here we get our first taste of Chandra's vocals. Now one of the biggest complaints we hear regarding vocals placed at the forefront of albums coming from the eastern regions of Asia is that they tend to be heavily accented, this has never been a problem for us at Desert Psychlist but we can understand why some do struggle with them. That is not a problem here though, there is hardly a hint of Chandra's accent to be heard throughout this number, or for that matter anywhere else on the album, this may be partly down to his clean strong vocals sitting low in the mix, it could be because our ears are drawn to the strength of the excellent riffs, rhythms and solos Gilang, Fahmi, Nizar and Ropik lay around his vocals or it could simply be that Chandra has great diction, either way they serve the song perfectly. The blurb that accompanies this debut album on the bands Bandcamp page states that the bands influences stem from, among others, a shared love of bands like Clutch, Alice In Chains, Orange Goblin and The Sword and it is the last on that list that Desert Psychlist hears a large majority of in Whitehovse's sonic attack with songs like "Dead Rolling", Human Extinction" and especially "Against The Wall" all possessing similar rolling hard driven dynamics. These guys also know how to mix things up too. the band incorporating a touch of old school metallic chug'n'roll into the strident "Silence Of The Soul" and some nice heavy bluesiness into title track "The Mighty One". and as if to prove that they did not forget to mention the combined might of Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill in their list of influences Whitehovse bring things to a close with "Vile Triumphant" an instrumental that sees the band capping off what has been a thoroughly enjoyable listen with some Sabbathesque proto-doom.
This band is dope man! I've just sent you an email about my album as well, can you take a look, please?
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