White Lung - Deep Fantasy

White Lung

Deep Fantasy

16 June 2014

Domino

4 stars out of 5

 

Deep Fantasy is the third “LP” (none of which clock in at more than half as long as a typical LP) by Vancouver punksters White Lung. Fans of the band will be pleased to know that they haven’t changed a thing from their 2012 international breakthrough, Sorry. When something works—and works really well—why fuck with it?

Still present among the band’s arsenal is the exciting interplay between Mish Way’s melodic vocal daggers and Kenneth William’s intricate minefield of guitar riffage. Tracks like the sonic flamethrower that is “Face Down” keep the punk crown of Canada firmly planted on the collective White Lung head… well, if such a thing were permissible, because, you know, fuck the monarchy and all that. “Wrong Star” is Zen Arcade, thirty years later: a thrilling hardcore composition that pushes the genre to its limits of both militant intensity and melodic hook appeal. “In Your Home” is an entire burst Enbridge pipeline’s worth of emotion splattered across the mosh pits of British Columbia and beyond.

Detractors who decry the lack of “growth” between Sorry and Deep Fantasy suffer from two illnesses: an inability to read the subtleties of the genre, and a malignant Victorian sense of “progress” that is anathema to the very core essence of punk. Despite the move to a much larger label, there isn’t the slightest degree of sell-out here. Whatever your opinion of White Lung’s spectacularly photogenic qualities, this band definitely knows how to bring the noise, and their discography is only becoming more impressive.

reviewed by Richard Krueger