Band:	Deathwhite
Album:	Grave Image
Style:	Melodic doom metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	January 31, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Funeral Ground
02. In Eclipse
03. Further From Salvation
04. Grave Image
05. Among Us
06. Words Of Dead Men
07. No Horizon
08. Plague Of Virtue
09. A Servant
10. Return To Silence

I don't know who Deathwhite are, but they make some pretty sad music.

I wasn't kidding. The identities of the members of Deathwhite are something like a state secret kept by the CIA or something. So for some reason, we're gonna have to live with just the knowledge that there's four dudes from Pittsburgh who make some melancholic gothic doom in the vein of Katatonia, Soen, Woods Of Ypres and Swallow The Sun. If that's your thing, hop on board.

What this reminds me most is another album from this year that I reviewed, namely the new Dawn Of Solace. It indeed doesn't feel as Finnish as had way less melodeath in it, but the gloomy morose feeling is there, and just as much delivered by passionate clean vocals, though this time from an anonymous singer. It is mostly this emotional performance that really sells the album, not to give the other members any flack, but his voice is something really easy to connect to. And it is mostly from the vocals that the album's alternative rock influence is felt the strongest. There's definitely a bit of Tool's Maynard in his voice but not strictly limited to that, with a lot of grunge and post-grunge (aka the only post genre that is miles worse than its predecessor) inflections too. So if you needed some gothic doom to remind you of the early 00s, you have Grave Image.

Of course, that is a bit reductive of the album. I feel like Deathwhite tackle post-grunge much much better than most actual post-grunge album did, but that might also be because their melancholy is supplemented by the gothic doom, which in turn has just some smudges of melodeath and meloblack in the instrumentation to add some edge to it. The riffs are obviously heavier than anything you would've heard in a bona fide post-grunge album, and the gloomy heaviness with the morose lightness make for some immersive backing to the already very immersive vocals. It isn't really as cheesy as something you would put in a "Rock Lee vs Gaara AMV" (which is partly how I got into heavier music), but it is still accessible enough for a heavy album to be appreciated by people who aren't into metal, and with great enough songwriting and heavy enough guitars to be appreciated by people who are.

I wouldn't mind Deathwhite becoming massively popular, especially since as of the writing of this review I can claim that I was a fan before they were famous. I know that's unlikely to happen, but I'm doing my part.

"Return to silence
Return to dust
Return to stillness
Return to us"



[Also this is apparently my 250th review for MS, cheers to as many more!]