Our friends/tormenters at White Suns (Kevin Barry, Rick Visser, and Dana Matthiessen) are coming out with a new LP of earsplitting tunes later in March. The album is titled Totem and judging from this new single, "Priest in the Laboratory," it looks as though the trio's lost none of their primal force since their 2012 sophomore effort Sinews.
The song sees White Suns again saying "fuck it" to a concept of structure, careening forward in a heap of caustic vocals, screeching guitar, piercing electronics, and frantic drumming. But the group does go through a number of interesting phases. At one point, everything pulls back to highlight Matthiessen's deft percussion work, and later, Barry's guitar and Visser's electronics work together in bursts to form a coda. White Suns' music continues to be something of an all-out shred-fest, but that's not necessarily a problem, as their interplay continues to be a compelling combination of all-over-the-place and very, very tight.
Totems drops March 25 via The Flenser. Hopefully it's as powerful as its predecessor, review below: