The ever-inventive Ukrainian Black Metal band WHITE WARD unleash their defining third full-length "False Light", a grand work of exploratory depth and a remarkable expansion upon all that made 2019's acclaimed "Love Exchange Failure" such a triumph.

Always surprising and never less than captivating, from a base of rhythmically creative, furiously melodic Black and Death Metal the band shape-shift through a vivid suite of songs-as-journeys: seamlessly utilising hues of brass-led darkjazz and stately post-rock, foregrounding the evocative contributions of guesting clean vocalists in passages redolent of gothic Americana/post-punk and integrating virtuosic guitar leads, textural electronics and atmospheric sample-work.

Heavily conceptual and rich with meaning, the 8 dystopian tracks use overarching inspiration from "Intermezzo", a 1908 impressionistic novel by the Ukrainian author Mykhailo Kotsubinsky - in addition to works by Beat-writer Jack Kerouac and psychoanalyst Carl Jung - to explore government-sanctioned murders, imminent environmental catastrophes, police brutality, domestic abuse, the psychic emptiness of cities, falsity of modern mainstream culture and ill-effects of overconsumption.

"False Light" is a multi-layered success story - perfectly balancing tension and traction, restraint and resurgence, fatalism and focus into an indispensable record from a stunning band at the top of their game.

Recommended if you like: DEAFHEAVEN, IHSAHN, ULVER, BLUT AUS NORD…