My opinion is that we very rarely feel 666% challenged in the inexhaustible field of band music regardless of genre, much less by the tense-ass-hole world of Metal. The simple idea of listening to a Metal band AND be unable to grab it by the balls (structure-wise), AND precisely enjoying that, is still pretty much taboo and as far as I’m concerned, quite far from any commonly grounded degree of artistic achievement. Metal’s riffing, or whatever you want to call it, has only evolved in complexity and tightened its broadening leash over the years – but it has not been dematerialized or spiritualized much, except through minimalism and repetition (think drone doom and alike). That’s exactly why a band like The White Tiger Prepade makes perfect sense to me. Their body language lies somewhere in no music’s land, right in between the uncountably infinite of mathematics and the inner logic of chaos. So pardon the obscurity of my review; it is not my fault but entirely theirs.
Now to the musick. Fuckkk. Do I have to turn into a tantric magi, a fortune-telling wizard, or some sort of music magician, to nail down The White Tiger Prepade? Listening to Mystic Force In Gatekeepers Question Overflowing The Fountain Of Astral Trollfire, I really (like seriously) wonder where these guys are taking it from, musically speaking. First, this band is full of climaxing energy, exploding in every sense of the word, whenever and however they feel like it. They sound like a beast set loose: no structural constraints and no more doors locked. More to the point, the vaguely distorted guitars seem a little disjointed, and flowing through kind of a psychedelic, multi-soloing melting pot, their alien lines ebb and flow in diverging directions at once. One could argue that there actually are riffs in there, and yes, there are, but at the very best, what you get are hints (shadows – ghosts) of riffs with varying time signatures and discontinuity. That is The White Tiger Prepade! If it was only for the guitars, the band would never really land down anywhere, rather bringing you higher and farther all the time. But what eventually bridges these free-minded unharmonies and unstructured webs towards Metal is the drummer; this gentleman deserves everyone’s attention – I would call him the first F(ree)-M(etal) percussionist I’m aware of. To be honest, I’ve never heard any other drum-man reconstructing Metal’s extra-poly-ryhthms quite like what’s happening here. It’s almost as if parts of his drumkit float around his six curving arms and brushing abstract BPM like mad and aggressive tempi out of the blue, e-ve-ry single detail he performs both greatly enhances, grounds into deep grooves and constructively challenges the serpentine, uneasy guitars. It has to be heard to be believed. I wasn’t head-banging, I was mind-banging for God’s sake!
Indeed, the initial chaos is quite ecstatic but while this improvisational aspect of the band does in truth exist, I wouldn’t go as far as terming their musick ‘impro’ because I can’t. Most assuredly, it’s far from being only improvisation, and that’s what keeps me coming back to the album. Let me put it like that: the more listening sessions spent, the more avenues you will distinguish in the chaos, and the more The White Tiger Prepade’s musick, for lack of a better explanation, feels like hallucinatory paintings traced in the audible space, temporarily taking on diverse forms like evaporating clouds, from one metamorphosis to another. With the delightful exception of Deadend Underground Ethnotrolls Fingerknitting Utopian Tribal Drugs Running As Life Weaving Streams To The Netherworlds Troughout Deep Red Rat Channeling Roots, most of the album remains quite fast-paced. In a way, the experience reminded me of what could be the art of levitation out of extreme musick’s body. All the way through, I was often picturing some kind of Magic-Tribal ceremonies held in a forest of bending trees, guided by the alien influence of free, ritualistick Metal meditations, so I expected T. MecKenna’s machine elves to pop up at any given time. In conclusion, The White Tiger Prepade radicalizes the deconstruction work which MAYHEM started with Ordo Ab Chao, to a degree unseen anywhere else, at least in my humble knowledge of contemporary experimentalism. I dare say, this is mind-expanding Metal from the 21st century, as it should be: unarmored and out of scratch. Or to misquote W. Blake, ‘if the doors of perception were cleansed, Metal musick would appear to man as it is, infinite.’
– Oliver Side
VITALS:
Release: 2010
Label: Norway Rat
Avantgenre: Exo Mind Banging Occultism
Duration: 57:26
Origin: Norway
Official site: http://www.myspace.com/whitetigerprepade
Review online since: 05.04.2010 / 23:58:46
TRACKLIST:
01 – Trollfire
02 – Muflon Rider
03 – Into The Mellow Void
04 – Anthem For Mystic Cats Journey
05 – Death Aquatic Dream Thunder Posse
06 – Deadend Underground Ethnotrolls Fingerknitting Utopian Tribal Drugs Running As Life Weaving Streams To The Netherworlds Troughout Deep Red Rat Channeling Roots
07 – Earthking
08 – Turning Into Amethysts
09 – 8
10 – Sacred Geometrical Gladiators Riding Lominous Spiralling Monoliths In Trancendental Fog Meditation
11 – Flames In Silver Bottles Behind Eyelid Trix Vibrating Heavy In Sapphire Ghost Hands
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