Review & Track Premiere: Deathwhite, Grey Everlasting
[Click play above to stream the premiere of Deathwhite’s ‘No Thought or Memory.’ Album preorders are available here. The band says, “‘No Thought or Memory’ details the opioid epidemic ravaging the United States and the perils of addiction. It is well documented how pharmaceutical companies have made billions by getting people hooked on their substances. The fact that they have gotten away with it for so long is reprehensible, but how quickly prescription drug abuse can destroy lives and families is even worse. The amount of lives affected is untold and there is no end in sight.”]
Anonymous Pittsburgh melodic death-doom hood-bearers Deathwhite release their third full-length, Grey Everlasting, June 10 through Season of Mist. In some ways, it is business as usual for the unknown parties involved in the band. The core of their sound remains intact in honing a style that is richly and morosely melodic, recalling the depressive craft of mid-period Katatonia especially but having increasingly made it their own over the last decade; their first full-length, 2017’s For a Black Tomorrow (review here), serving as the impetus for the Season of Mist pickup and re-release early the next year, while early-2020’s Grave Image (review here) fostered vibes that were only well at home in the darkest of winter and the resoundingly bleak Spring that followed. Grey Everlasting, with production once again from Shane Meyer and Art Paiz — instruments at Cerebral Audio and vocals at Erik Rutan‘s Mana Recording, respectively — invariably carries much of their sound forward into its new collection of 11 songs. Even the cover art by Jérôme Comentale is a consistent presence from both albums prior and then some. For those who’ve followed Deathwhite over their now 10-year arc, they reaffirm the depressive melodic doom metal that’s expected of them.
They also expand on it. The intro “Nihil,” in just 97 seconds, signals a shift in focus toward keyboard orchestrations, setting an expanded foundation for the tracks that lead-single “Earthtomb” soon answers in an initial blastbeaten burst and one of Grey Everlasting‘s most memorable hooks. This uptick in keys continues throughout and strengthens songs like “No Thought or Memory” (premiering below), the last piece of the opening salvo “Quietly, Suddenly,” or the later “Formless,” bolstering the impact of the guitar, bass and drums while enhancing the often-harmonized vocals that are by now a signature aspect of Deathwhite‘s approach. Correspondingly, Grey Everlasting is the most extreme album the band have done to-date, as the double-kick drumming in “Earthtomb” and “No Thought or Memory” is a foreshadow of “White Sleep” and “Immemorial” at the center of the tracklist. The former follows the title-cut and is an immediately meaner shove, pulling back from its ferocity for the verse but seeming extra tense in the crashes there, as though sending a subliminal signal of where it’s ultimately headed.
It’s as though, having been saddled with a perceived death metal influence to some degree or other over their prior releases, Deathwhite decided to really dive into it in more than just those first measures of “Earthtomb.” The vocals in the second half of “White Sleep” become more guttural. They’re still clean on the whole — it’s not an all-out growl — but the change is remarkable and resonates with the more intense instrumental turn surrounding. “White Sleep” settles down in its final movement, bringing the residual pummel in the drums together with the keyboard, and “Immemorial” doesn’t give away the plot right away, but at 2:36 into its total 4:06, the drums signal a change and growing whispers far back in the mix more fully depart from the ultra-clean delivery, soon joined by layers of growling and screaming both.
In the context of the song itself and the 47 minutes of Grey Everlasting as a whole, it’s a relatively minor stretch of time — doesn’t even last until the finish of the song — but just by being there, it expands the reach of record and band alike, and it means that the aggressive threat that’s seemed to underlie Deathwhite‘s material all along has been real. The effect is such that when the double-kick starts in “So We Forget” after “Formless,” it’s that much harder to know what kind of shift is coming. It makes Deathwhite a more versatile band.
In that regard, one can also point to the use of space throughout Grey Everlasting. Similar to how they’ve always incorporated ideas from death metal, Deathwhite have always been atmospheric — at very least you would say their songwriting does not want for mood — but the standalone drums in the first half of the penultimate “Blood and Ruin,” or the open-sounding patient manner in which the title-track unfolds, the echo there on guitar, snare and vocals alike. Even “Nihil” and “Earthtomb” demonstrate the greater breadth that Grey Everlasting seems to evoke in its sound, the latter layering a solo over its central rhythm not by forcing it to squeeze in ahead of the vocals, but by using the room that was there already — same thing goes for the keys coming forward between vocal lines. And before it arrives in the final chug that caps the record, six-minute closer and longest track “Asunder” does not neglect this element either, as its steady progression of verse and chorus give over to a stretch of acoustic guitar before the vocals and guitar return and herald the aforementioned payoff, allowing for one last moment of quiet and thereby furthering its own summary of who Deathwhite are at this pivotal stage in their development.
Let’s be honest. To a certain degree, those who’ve heard either of the Deathwhite full-lengths before Grey Everlasting should have some idea of what’s coming in these songs, and their consistency is an asset in acting as the ground upon which they build. And part of that is the emotionality of the songs. That is not lessened for the more extreme parts nor overblown by an increase in the lushness of the instrumental melodies. Whether it’s the sharper lead guitar line in “No Thought or Memory” or the cavernous scope in the beginnings of “Blood and Ruin,” Deathwhite not only sound more sure of that ground, but confident in the new ideas being presented. That combination makes Grey Everlasting the broadest Deathwhite release yet, and speaks of new life even when so much feels dystopian and disconnected outside the music. I won’t call a record titled Grey Everlasting hopeful, but the songs are a comfort and a catharsis in kind. Even as they seem so steady in their miseries, there’s room for beauty and brutality alike.
Can’t wait for this album. Grave Image was fantastic.