Musician: The White Swan
Album Title: Nocturnal Transmission
Genre/ Subgenre: Sludge Metal
Label: War Crime Recordings
Release Date: September 18, 2020
The White Swan is a sludge metal group led by Kittie's Mercedes Lander. With Nocturnal Transmission the London, Ontario trio have provided us with an atmospheric take on relationships and love.
This EP consists of three original tracks and one cover song. The songs mix sludgy music with fuzzed out guitar riffs and Lander's powerful and, sometimes, almost pained vocals. The opening track is "In Love and Ritual". It has a droning, drag through the mud sound with almost ethereal vocals on Lander's part. The title song is next and is my favorite. It has a heavy and truly crunching Black Sabbath influence with flourishes of alt and grunge thrown in, particularly in Lander's haunting and tragic sounding voice. It has an amazing and soaring lead break at the end, that raises the track's technical bar. Next is "Purple", which has a beautiful and psychedelics intro that heads into slow and doomy riffing. It's a wonderful song that mixes the trippy with the heavy. The album closes off with an awesome cover of Tracy Bonham's "Tell It To The Sky". The song is beautiful, haunting, and soaring, all while adding in their sludgy, slow, and buzzing riffs and style. It makes for a song that one can just zone out to. And, honestly, it's my second favorite on the EP.
As soon, as I heard of Mercedes Lander's involvement with this band and album, I was really excited for it. While, sludge metal isn't one of my go to sub-genres, I really enjoyed the hell out of Nocturnal Transmission. It's a doomy, slow, and, at times, psychedelic zone out. I look forward to hearing more from them, but for now, these four songs more than satisfies that need.
3.5 out of 5
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