White Willow - Storm Season
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Artist: White WillowEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-09-21
Music Label: Laser's Edge
Free Music Notes for Storm Season
Free Music Review: definitely worth the wait!
Hit: 5 Stars
White Willow's fourth album was delayed on several occasions, and was a painful wait for me. All release date postponements are forgiven because the finished product of _Storm Season_ is great. While White Willow is a prog band originating in the 90s, they should not be confused with the neo-prog/third-wave AOR-inflected stuff people usually associate with 90s prog. White Willow's well of influences overlaps with 70s British symph-prog, they have managed to establish a very unique overall sound. I think it is a concept album in some manner of speaking, because someone named Sally is mentioned a lot, and the last few songs talk about storms.
_Storm Season_'s aural moods are darker than the relatively 'light' previous album. In terms of arrangements, there are more heavy guitars but also more mellotrons/synths than before. Otherwise, the band continues to hone its unique epic, emotional folk-symph-prog amalgam. The lineup is a bit different this time, with cello and more synths added to the rock band + synths and flute core. Vocalist Sylvia Erichsen sings far less sweetly, adding credence to the band's descent into dark heaviness. The production is characteristically pristine but this time the mix was handled by Alan Douches, who has done mixes for bands as varied as Dillinger Escape Plan and Yes. Although the music isn't really anything I would consider _heavy_, the heavily distorted guitars and chugging metal riffs ("Soulburn") bring a few important elements to the music. Holm-Lupo now has more of a scale on which to explore his already poignant deployment of dynamics. The heavier sound adds emotional emphasis to the flow of the album, and makes some of the progginess of White Willow seem downright angry. The hungry guitar riff opening "Nightside of Eden" cackling upon arpeggiated synths is some mad proggin'. Heaviness and storminess seem to me perfectly natural together, as on "Soulburn", with eerie verses of soft instrumentation and male vocals, a grinding, crunchy chorus and solo cello section.
The tremendously haunting title track arranged for synths and mellotrons, and incredibly atmospheric vocals by Erichsen: "Gather your children and pray they will be there when the dawn breaks / Sound all your warning bells and cry for the lost sailors at sea / They are the first who will know what a storm can be." "Endless Science" fits the bill for the album's short acoustic ballad. The ominous, valedictory opener "Chemical Sunset" adopts a traditional folk motif into its grumbling, eerily beautiful prog arrangement.
The performances are outstanding all around. There is never too much or too little. Holm-Lupo's imaginative songs are gripping and emotional, and the production is, as always, outstanding.
_Storm Season_ is my favorite White Willow album along with _Ex Tenebris_, and is definitely one of 2004's Norwegian musical treasures.
(P.S.: I almost dropped a log when I saw someone mention this band in the same breath as the FLOWER KINGS. They sound nothing alike. This band wipes the floor with those Swedish wiener-prog nerds.)
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