By: Anders

Posted: Aug 4, 2006

Wow, is the expression that follows, when this album stops spinning. This is the Norwegian band's 4th full length album since the band was formed in the mid nineties, and my first encounter with the band. White Willow offers an atmospheric blend of progressive rock, melancholy, spiced up with some folk influences. The music is enchanting and gripping, and doesn't need many listens to drag the listener in, and when one first is caught in the web of White Willow, there isn't many ways out of it again.

The compositions are really well-written and even though they don't follow many traditional patterns, they are quite catchy and enchanting. The album does need a few listens before it all soaks in, though when that has happened and quite big and adventurous world opens up. Driven forth by the beautiful female vocals, passionate, full of emotion and fragile, it works really well with the melancholic tones of the music and paints the atmosphere a bit bleaker at times, and adds hope at other times.

Musically it, at times, seems very sporadic, there are seldom consistent guitar riffs, structures or rhythm patters throughout a whole song. It is more or less always shifting from some heavy riffs here, to a bleak melodic lead there, some jazzy drumming in the background, which fades away and leaves the place open for some progressive keyboard patters, and like that it shifts all the time, impressive song writing, as there is a flow throughout the songs, it is seldom that it all stops up, due to all the shifts, the momentum is continued, it must have taken some time to get all the music written and arranged. Production-wise it works pretty well as well, a dark, yet organic production with some sharp edges, especially some of the guitar solos bite quite hard and sound strident, though it might be a chosen effect, it does seem like it at times.

A strange yet enchanting album, is a good way to describe "Storm Season" on, if it has to be done fast. Melancholic, yet alive and hopeful at times, progressive dark rock, built upon and driven by atmospheric touches and elements. Very good and mature song writing, simple and stylistic, with an added folk element, as an instrument or a melody here and there, very effective, modern, yet classic, this album offers a lot, if you are patient and lets it flow in its own pace.

Rating: 9/10

White Willow website

Review of "Signal To Noise"

Distributed in Denmark by Target and kindly supplied by Intromental

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