WHITE DEATH – iconoclast – MARBLE LP

Black Metal – Beer Vinyl w/ Black/Orange Marble version – Werewolf Records

Black humor, perhaps, for WHITE DEATH’s forthcoming Iconoclast is anything but “worst-possible” or “muddy” – in fact, it’s downright HUGE. Comprising an epic hour across a dozen tracks, Iconoclast is an all-engrossing album-length experience: each track stands mightily on its own, but all are threaded together into a dazzling song-cycle that can handily challenge any “big budget” black metal album past or present. It could be heresy to liken WHITE DEATH’s second album to some of the second wave’s biggest albums, so we won’t, but the point stands that these Finns are operating within rarefied territory; hearts authentically ablaze with the underground spirit, they nevertheless unshackle themselves from the ghettoized thinking that mostly serves to keep the mongrel hordes within safe, status-quo boxes. Thus, with no small amount of pomp and majesty, Iconoclast blasts out into the cosmos on a rocket of kaleidoscopic splendor and still-nasty riffing. Fully 3D, the orchestration is densely layered and yet possessive of mystical space, buffeted by songwriting that continually peaks and crests; dynamics are sharpened to a sterling degree, encasing the listener within surround-sound splendor. Before one knows it, the 60 minutes of Iconoclast have come to a close and it’s time to drown within its velvety depths again. Here, WHITE DEATH salute a new horizon…