Album Review: The White Swan – “The White”

Though she provided backing vocals while occupying the space behind the drum set in nu-metal darlings KiTTiE, Mercedes Lander is a Jill-of-all-trades in The White Swan, her new heavy AF offshoot, handling vocals, drums, guitars and keyboards on their latest EP The White. After channeling Neurosis on opener “North Carolina,” a six-minute-plus mountainous slab of instrumental doom metal, Lander takes center stage, her dissonant vocals awash in a barrage of thunderous drumming and towering fuzzed out riffs (“Lions” features downtuned guitars and stunning, ethereal hooks, “The White” is a straight up stomping homage to late 70’s Black Sabbath with a slight tip of the cap to early Alice in Chains). The White Swan could not be more diametrically opposed to the sound of Lander’s day job and that’s not a bad thing. 

Go Download: “Lions”