Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: White Skull
Label: Dragonheart Records
Release: 2012
Runtime: 56:51
Rating: 4/5
White Skull are Italian power metallers from Vicenza, formed way back in 1988. They caught the attention of the wider metal crowd by jumping ship to Nuclear Blast Records and putting out “Tales From the North” in 1999, followed in 2001 by its sequel of sorts, “Public Glory, Secret Agony”, for Breaker Records. Throughout their career, White Skull have kept up the hard-earned image of a credible Italian power metal act, one that builds its identity on a darker, more aggressive stance, with no “symphonic prettifying” and no overdoing the pompous, bloated motifs that usually go with the Italian approach to power metal (good morning, Rhapsody Of Fire). What makes the band special is also the female vocals, which are really the key ingredient that gives White Skulll their distinctive character and recognizability.
The two albums mentioned in the opening paragraph of this review closed out the run of original singer Federica “Sister” De Boni, who left the band in 2001. In the years in between, White Skull did try their luck with male vocals too, but the big breakthrough and a spot among Europe’s leading power metal bands never came. The slow shift back to their roots started with the album “Forever Fight” (2009) with singer Elisa De Palma, who left the band in 2010. Now original singer Federica is back at the mic, and with her the band has moved a good step closer to their turn-of-the-millennium releases.
The firing of keyboardist Alessio Lucatti plays into this as well, and White Skull are now a five-piece again. The keyboards, which, let’s be honest, White Skull never overdid anyway, are sunk deep into the background on the new album and only show up tucked away behind the chorus melodies, where they fill whatever sonic space is left over. Up front are the raw-sounding guitar riffs, which once again tempt and tease without mercy and rage at the core of a truly cataclysmic agony. In terms of production, White Skull get close to good old Grave Digger on “Under This Flag”, and speaking of Grave Digger, in their current lineup they’re no longer capable of putting together a record as good as “Under This Flag”.
The band filled their sails with a full gust of creative energy and shook out an album that’s convincingly propelled by dynamic twists and turns. They’ve nailed the gripping mood of dramatic theater and doomed obscurity that real metal menace demands. Then there’s Federica’s passionate, committed vocal, which steers deftly between pure melodic singing and throaty, restrained barking that locks effectively into the raw riff production, only deepening and cementing the sense of rawness and aggression on the album. The band managed to put together songs with infectious, anthemic melodies that squeeze remarkably varied results out of power metal’s tightly staked-out boundaries, blending metal punch and melodic bombast convincingly. The way the building blocks interact is superb, with highly fluid arrangements, and the band successfully smashes any trivial predictability in the motifs with, among other things, spot-on eruptive bursts of bass drum pedal pummeling, on top of which the guitar riffs sit on a rolling rhythmic chassis.
By Italian standards, “Under Thsi Flag” is a very menacing album. So it keeps White Skull’s established musical identity at a high level and holds on to the band’s pedigree of respected recognizability on the European metal scene. And more than that. With “Under This Flag”, White Skull are delivering an album to the market that stands proudly next to the landmark records of their career, while squeezing out even more maturity in the arrangements, the production choices, and the splendid fusion of the main motifs, building “Under This Flag” into an arrogantly convincing power metal pocket-knife of a record, with no time to yawn. True power metal fanatics will recognize the poisonously infectious substance of this album in an instant. As long as White Skull keep forging choruses with the melodic punch of the ones in Red Devil, A.O.D., or Nightmares, there’s no fear that the band’s snarling metal teeth will ever get chipped.
“Under This Flag” is a triumphant return to the band’s essence. It proves that Federica’s vocals are simply made for this band, so let’s hope the girl sticks around permanently now, since that’s a guarantee of studio excellence on the band’s future albums. The album has an outstanding mix of melodic catchiness and untamed, primordial power metal voltage, without a trace of the saccharine, naive moments we so often get from today’s hyperplasia of power metal bands. All this shows that White Skull are a band that, thanks to plenty of experience, knows how to bring the very heart of metal’s point right to the listener’s face, convincingly and authentically. Let me also mention that White Skull will play this year’s edition of the Metal Mania Open Air festival, in July in the middle of Komen in the Karst, where we’ll have plenty of chances to see how the band’s excellent studio form carries over to the stage!
Lineup
Federica “Sister” De Boni – vocals
Tony “Mad” Fontò – guitar
Danilo Bar – guitar
Jo Raddi – bass
Alex Mantiero – drums
Production
Tony “Mad” Fontò
Tracklist
1. Hunted Down
2. Bottled Mind
3. Red Devil
4. Lost Alone
5. Under This Flag
6. A.O.D.
7. Prisoners Of War
8. War After War
9. Nightmares
10. Freedom´s Not Free
11. You Choose
12. Redemption
