With Terminal Twilight, we reach the conclusion of Karisma’s revisitation of White Willow’s back catalogue. The release schedule of an album every 4 or 5 months has allowed fans to savour each release, so it’s almost with regret that we reach the end of this sequence. 2006’s Signal To Noise had seen the band trim back the more overt progressive rock elements in their compositions, and in doing so had to some degree thrown out the baby with the bath water. Somewhat disillusioned, leader Jacob Holm-Lupo then went off to work on his art pop project The Opium Cartel. Not surprisingly, the lure of the White Willow project and prog music in general pulled him back.
Holm-Lupo admits that ‘before writing the material for this album, I had gorged myself on a lot of Italian prog rock, especially Le Orme. So I think a bit of that influence crept into the music. A very proggy album that we are still very happy with’. So, for this return to prog, original singer Sylvia Erichsen also returned (presumably newly married since her surname had become Skjellestad), as did drummer Mattias Olsson who had been played way back on Ex-Tenebris. The importance influence of future Wobbler keyboardist, Lars Fredrik Frøislie, was maintained in the group too, and hence this was a very strong line-up.
Erichsens’ return certainly didn’t trigger the band to fall back to its original bucolic roots. If anything, it is harsher in sound than any preceding White Willow album, even if I suspect some of that has to do with the production which to me seems to yoyo between over quiet and overload, often with a questionable balance between the instruments. Take the passage beginning at the four-minute mark in Red Leaves where Frøislie seems to be competing with himself to play three themes as loud as possible, creating utter sonic chaotic.
Terminal Twilight is formed of eight songs, of which in typical White Willow fashion there is a marked distinction between simpler (and usually shorter) numbers and the more epic affairs. Looking at those simpler songs first, Snowswept has a straightforward vocal section but is sadly ruined by some heavy-handed percussion, while Kansas Regrets is an acoustic ballad, graced by a fine melody (with vocals shared with guest Tim Bowness). Of the two instrumentals, a Rumour Of Twilight is a brief postlude that closes the album, and the much more substantial and intriguingly titled Natasha of the Burning Woods is a Genesis-influenced keyboard-driven piece that builds nicely to a compelling climax.
The most bizarre track on Terminal Twilight must surely be Hawks Circle The Mountain. The song moves through a number of sharply contrasting sections, but the overall feel remains dark and unsettling. Despite clearly being prog, it doesn’t have any of the ‘70s prog trademarks that are typical of White Willow. Even Frøislie seems to have switched to a 21st century keyboard sound. There’s something of a more traditional climax at the end, but it remains a hard song to decipher – it can be viewed as either a forgotten classic or a melange of incompatible ideas.
Red Leaves and Floor 67 are both longer pieces, around the ten-minute mark. Red Leaves is a slow-paced song, that alternatives quiet vocals with powerful instrumental parts, in what is probably the most coherently structured song on the album. Floor 67 has a very similar structure to Red Leaves, but doesn’t quite excite as much. At close to fourteen minutes, Searise is clearly intended as the magnum opus on Terminal Twilight. It’s another multi-part piece, which – if you want to be less generous – you could say is a bit too fragmented. Still, it’s worth working your way through it for the thrilling explosions of keys and/or guitars that erupt at various points and climaxes with one of Holm-Lupo’s most inspired solos.
Like every White Willow album, Terminal Twilight has high points and low(er) ones, but overall, it represents a fine return to form. Without a doubt it’s a massive improvement on Signal To Noise and only a shade behind their accepted masterpiece, Storm Season. A must for every White Willow fan.
No comments! Be the first commenter?