One of the biggest problems with metal today is that much of
\nwhat comes out of Scandanavia is of the “warrior” mold, singing
\ntales of Vikings and slaughter, all for the glory of heavy metal
\n(and less for getting laid – guess that’s saved for the American
\nbands). On that thought, it would be easy to lump White Skull and
\ntheir latest disc
\nTales From The North<\/i> into that category.<\/p>\n
Wrong move, amigo. First, White Skull is actually an Italian
\nband, though their sound is much better than what I probably would
\nhave expected from a Scandanavian band in the same vein. (Some of
\nthe comments I read about White Skull said it sounded like they had
\na German influence – and after plowing through this disc, I don’t
\nthink I would disagree.) Second,
\nTales From The North<\/i> proves to be an enjoyable, if harmless,
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist Federica “Sister” DeBoni, guitarists Tony
\n“Mad” Font\u00f2 and Nick “B.B.” Savio, bassist Fabio Pozzato and
\ndrummer Alex Mantiero – surprises not by playing their music in a
\nclassical metal theme, but by how they seem to have mastered the
\ngenre. From the soft, melodic intro “The Quest” kicking into the
\nHelloween-like title track, White Skull show they have the chops
\nand the songwriting needed to make a name for themselves.<\/p>\n
This is all well and good, the critic – who has seen too many
\nbands of this ilk come and go – says, but what do they do that
\nseparates them from the pack? Ah, that’s where “The Terrible
\nSlaughter” comes in. Breaking the mold of everything they have done
\non this album to that point, DeBoni and crew slow things down into
\na power ballad that has just enough crunch to the music without
\ngoing overboard. It would have been easy for Savio to have ripped
\ninto a solo that set his fingertips ablaze, but he chooses instead
\nto play a controlled piece instead – one that complements, not
\novershadows, the song itself. Three words: smart… very smart.<\/p>\n
One other thing I’ll give White Skull for is that they don’t get
\ntoo heavily into the “macho warrior” bullshit that seems to be all
\nthe rage in this type of metal today. (Like it ever went away –
\nthere’s a reason why I haven’t listened to Manowar’s
\nFighting The World<\/i> since high school.) There is talk of
\nfighting and glory on songs like “Viking’s Tomb” and “Fighting And
\nFeasting,” but it’s much more played down than one would have
\nexpected. And, more often than not, it seems like the album
\nembraces the entire Norse culture, including religion and death
\n(“Gods Of The Sea,””Viking’s Tomb”) than just mass slaughter for
\nthe hell of it.<\/p>\n
And while there are one or two moments where
\nTales From The North<\/i> sags a bit, the band is able to
\ntranscend these brief slips and keep the adrenalin that makes up
\nthis album going. The way they tie things up with the instrumental
\noutro “Still Alive” makes perfect sense, and is the ultimate way
\nfor this disc to end.<\/p>\n
So why do I call this “harmless”? Simple: Unlike some of the
\ndiscs I’ve heard in this vein, White Skull don’t seem to zero in on
\nthe “blood and guts” aspect of the music, instead allowing the
\nsongs themselves to speak instead of the lyrics. So even though
\nthere is occasional talk of going to war, it’s almost easy to laugh
\nit off as a passing fancy.<\/p>\n
I still question why such a type of metal is still so popular
\n(at the risk of sounding unhip), but if White Skull continue to
\nmake music like
\nTales From The North<\/i>, then I guess I have no complaints
\nabout the genre thriving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6143],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36289","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-white-skull","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36289"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36289"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}