Album Details

• Artist: White Mystery
• Album: Blood & Venom
• Label: White Mystery
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2012-04-25

Filter the Cramps through Dick Dale (as if they hadn't done themselves already), blend in some scabrous guitar distortion, echoing vocals and you have White Mystery, a guitar/drum duo that rampages through a set of twisted psych and grimy punk with an abandon and glee-and menace- that all the best bands have. "Blood & Venom" comes at you hard and tight for thirty minutes and then fades away, but this is a band that will hang around in your head for longer than that.

Opener "White Mystery" oozes along like a combination of the Stooges with Hasil Atkins sitting in; beneath the grime there is a cool shuffle propelling this. The record then flows back and forth between more sludge-abilly ("Snack Culture") and bottom heavy, gritty psych ("Blood & Venom). Somewhere in between are rolling, unglued freakouts like "Smoke" and "Birthday," and "1985," good ol 60s punk raveup with a nod to mid-80s Aussies like Hoodoo Gurus. For variety, "Pumpkin Crème" and "Birthday" are clean and sharp in comparison, with more melody up front, pop, but warped pop.

Siblings Alex and Francis White may initially be compared to another bro-sis guitar-drum duo, but only on paper. One listen to "Blood & Venom" is a debut that proves this to be a band with much different fish to fry; plus, they're cool without constantly reminding you know they are. White Mystery pack a gut punk that draws from psych, rockabilly and various other unholy sonic alliances. True believers step right up!

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