Whitenoir Cut Their Teeth With “Feed Me”
Whitenoir is a relatively new band out of Malang, consisting of Ekki, Alle, Ade and Helmi. They just cut their teeth in the local scene earlier this year by releasing the single ‘Sub-District’. About a month later, the band already shared the debut EP Feed Me via Popflesh Records.
Their music is something refreshing for the scene. They describe themselves as a modern grunge. But I know that’s a wide term, so I simply put it as the mix between grunge and emo altogether, which involved the constellation of Balance & Composure, Superheaven, Citizen, Daisyhead etc.
In the EP, ‘Stereotype’ kicks in as a strong start with the thick riffs since the opening verse. ‘Dive’ comes to convince that Ekki’s vocal tends to sound like Mat Kerekes in Youth. Then more convincingly it is followed up by ‘Help Me Sleep’ with its hypnotic riffs. But the bass feels bit messy in the second verse, I lost the vocal that sounds like a murmur before eventually saved by the chorus. Last, ‘Sub-District’ is a decent track and I always wait for its “meaningless, it’s all pointless” bridge. It’s all good.
And I think the whole 4 tracks rely on the juxtaposition of the loud and quite from the aggressive guitar-driven and magnetic melodies and hazy vocal. That being said, it also can be described as the slow emo band in a stoner mode.
Overall, the debut release sounds pretty good. But I think it’s fair to say that they deserve a room for improvement for the next move. In other words, they may be not perfect over here and there, but they got humanity and honesty instead. And for that, I’m more than happy to be a fan of Whitenoir.
