Review Summary: Here comes that Oklahoma stampede…
Now I’m never one let personal feelings on a subject corrupt my journalistic integrity. That said, 5/5 EP best band ever, alright everyone go home now.
(Once) hailing from the great state that brought you Jim Ross and
Twister starring Bill Paxton is a project from the mind of one J. Tyler Wright to spank the world’s collective eardrum with sonically sinister sludge big southwest style. A band so dreaded they scared Dave Mustaine into retirement. A band whose very sickening sound compels the stray cats of Oklahoma City to wail in agonizing chorus, the sound of which would make the hairs on Satan’s red hot caprine ass stand up. They rock face harder than a stone age orthodontist and they get around almost as much as your mom.
White Recluse is the Metallica’s
Load of sludge and doom, not your favorite but secretly your favorite. Joking aside, they effortlessly emanate every quality you want out of said genres: fuzzed out guitars slamming down oppressively heavy riffs over sickeningly slow-paced drum poundage and reverberating vocals that cut through the thickest fog machine haze of even the dingiest bars across America.
The band’s influences are fairly prevalent where the chugging, fast-paced riffs of Crowbar (whom the band has toured with in the past) meet the resonant, molasses thick blues of Windhand. The lyrics, all written by Wright, follow dark themes of death, mental illness and Oklahoma, all of which suitably match the graven tone of the super-heavyweight sound the band produces.
A fair amount of
Blacklisted in OKC is off the cuff jamming, soloing and amusing banter between band mates, all of which give it the natural feeling of being with the band at rehearsal. Despite this, what feels like a full album’s worth of entertainment is crammed into this small (by doom standards) EP, which is quite impressive. Surely the band could have gone on longer had they not forgotten to feed the cat his potatoes (shame on you).
Needless to say this isn’t going to redefine any of the genres the band projects but they’re here to play them the way they were meant to be played, and they most certainly do on this EP. One listen of “Flower Girl” will surely remind you what good doom sounds like in case you forgot. If that’s not enough for you then why are you still here, nerd? You want doom riffs? You want killer drums?? YOU WANT WAILING CATS??? Look no further.
Band Members
JT Wright: Vocals, Rhythm guitar
Gavin Al-Asif: Lead guitar
Alec Wright: Bass
Tommy Frizzell: Drums
