Last members of the rather crowded club of new bands dedicated to death doom are White Mare, a band formed by Swiss David Genillard (vocals and keyboards) and Thomas Wacinski (drums), both also engaged with the melodic deathsters Nightshade, and the Dutch Jorik Arts, known in the doom scene for what he did in recent years with his solo project Doomcult. From this confluence comes a work like Isle Of Bliss, in which the trio engages with themes inspired by Greek mythology, where the fate of the protagonists of the songs is mostly the atrocious sentence to a tortured immortality imposed by the gods (for example in Les oiseaux de proie there are references to the torment of Prometheus, while To Rest at Last leads back to the loneliness of Ulysses, adrift while fighting the fury of the elements); the resulting sound has dramatic connotations that give great intensity to each of the five tracks that make up the tracklist. The goodness of White Mare‘s work lies also in a proposal that is anything but derivative and quite varied, much more directed to evoke emotions thanks to the overall atmosphere rather than through catchy melodic solutions; in this sense, the death doom exhibited is sometimes austere and solemn but it drips pain in an appropriate way to touch the listener’s strings. Genillard’s vocal style is a harsh tone usually used by sludge or post metal bands but, transposed in this context, it gives back at its best the heartbreak of the characters depicted in the various tracks, in which they tell in first person the loss and despair resulting from their condition. Isle Of Bliss is a surprising album for its depth and for the sense of yearning that manages to evoke, thanks to an approach to the subject performed with inspiration and competence.
2022 – Symbol Of Domination Prod. / Negre Plany
Mournful Sounds 
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