Love Exchange Failure

Love Exchange Failure

Release date: 20/09/2019

Label: Debemur Morti Productions

Following an avalanche of positivity towards the ‘deviant black metal noir’ of 2017 debut Futility Report, WHITE WARD from Odessa, Ukraine present second full-length Love Exchange Failure, the next step of their rapid evolution into an increasingly unique musical force.

The band channel Bohren, Badalamenti and contemporary blackened majesty into an eclectic set of visionary hymns that fuse late-night metropolitan contemplation, psychological horror, intoxicating melodicism and primeval, animal-state ferocity.

Drenched in composure, creativity and dynamism, Love Exchange Failure blends brushed drums, reverberant piano, a variety of guesting clean vocalists and neo-noir saxophone within an architecture of first-rate contemporary misanthropic black metal.

Diverse movements and tonal shifts interlink as if to mirror what the band describes as humanity’s existential struggle “caused by the inability to understand who we are and what our place on this planet is” – a clash between dreamworlds and harsh reality evocative as the urban landscapes of photographer Luke Pownall used throughout the packaging.

Love Exchange Failure is an essential listen, a record that on repeat plays opens up like a streetscape sinkhole to drag you into the degenerate heart of the city.

Tracklist

1. Love Exchange Failure 11:55
2. Poisonous Flowers Of Violence 08:13
3. Dead Heart Confession 10:05
4. Shelter 05:41
5. No Cure For Pain 12:26
6. Surfaces And Depths 06:15
7. Uncanny Delusions 12:29

Empty streets wallow in night lights Crowded for a day, they rest But lonely strangers always gaze At every turn, they do their best While someone's running from themselves They often want to save some time Instead, they make an old mistake Passionately commit a crime Feeble flesh is torn apart Blood and dust are turned to mud Once was bright — will never shine I gift you with what was mine Take my pains and leave a prayer I am your most sinful player The redemption for my past Turned your smile into rust A child is drowned within Entombed in a pool of tears A grownup is buried alive And lives a life that's full of nightmares A victim's always innocent A murderer is sleepless All my tears are pushing me To the loss of empathy. I delegate my weaknesses to you And carve a hymn to tyranny With nails that go deep inside your chest I wish you all the best

Poisonous flowers of violence Grow and prosper everywhere No prophets left to see the crime No one feels the pain done Like a mountain stream Мiolence devours the stone Inglorious powers burn the crown They meanly crash the roots I will never forget your boots On my face I grow a tree out of the blackest seeds I water it with violent deeds And when I harvest all the thoughts I turn them into bloody spots My tree springs up of all the dark I cherish it with silent notes And then, I harvest all its fruits My needs are never satisfied

I always see the face of death Its shadows cover every inch of this vomitous place I always fill the emptiness That's left when someone dies in agony I feel no pain — my heart is cold The everlasting flame is dead But I believe that you can save me Save me and then forsake me Bury your god, bury your blood Bury your soul, bury yourself I always face the worst of plagues My life is like a TV screen The prime time is fulfilled with filth So is the rest broadcast And even when I sleep I see these hideous crimes They never make me calm I feel like mesmerized No longer I believe that all my past was bright So is the vision of the present I have an urgent need to tell the truth, so I confess The stress is forcing me to feel the guilty pleasure To feel the pleasure caused by death There is no need to make a crime, I only have to gaze I have to gaze and recognize new ways atrocity is made Forsake me

Cursed shall be the fruit of your body And the fruit of your mind The wealth of your spirit And the strength of your will Blessed shall be the fruit of your despair And the fruit of your dismay The wealth of your insanity And the strength of your demise “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.” The words of the fourth song are a reworked quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book of the Christian Old Testament. The Western European culture is based on Christianity and inherits its dualism with all the corresponding issues. Dividing this world into good and bad prevents us from understanding the complexity of things.

When I heal a new soul The emptiness smiles to me The darkness shines blindly My eyes bleed And then I ask myself What is relief? How can it save us in this cruel epoch? Relax — breathe deep Stay strong and weep Be calm and seek You are not weak I gift relief to every soul I cure The pain is reduced but wounds are never healed They bleed and bleed to leave me dry The walls are cracked, so demons are unleashed. The plague of city lights, and nights, and cars is crushing us We are all doomed by the last friction of our fathers The nightmare is revealed, it’s burning us to dust We are condemned by the last scream of our mothers Distant peaks and deforested planes will never forget the treason We're digging our own graves for multiple reasons Dirty streams and littered lanes will never forsake misdoings There is no reason to forgive us for everything we are doing now Ancient beliefs bring us some rest Digging a grave saves us from stress This noisy space begets me But I don’t want to be here What cure do I need? What did I get indeed? Nil

The sins of fathers burden us we come from water, then go to dust And when we die, the legacy Burdens those ones willing to see Starve! Do we deserve this attitude that burns us whole? Cry! Do we observe Our sanity's tremendous fall We are all doomed, so is your prayer The wicked thoughts — the darkest share See what is done behind your pleasure You'll never get the final treasure Starve! Do we deserve this attitude that burns us whole? Cry! Do we observe Our sanity's tremendous fall Low, we sink High, we fly Every time We fail

Silent reflections start to shout shadows live their own lives they move across and go beyond onward the slow oblivion Northern winds won't bring relief western deserts don't let breathe eastern stars no longer lead Southern swamps in mourning bleed Permanent pleasures are denied Useless treasures — not a reason to fight Unbearable burdens tore you apart Unpleasantly down and never upward Triple suns produce less light their warmth cannot ignite melted minds coexist in one body they resist Never apart Never united Always ignored Forever oppressed Never apart Never united Always ignored Forsaken and stressed Dissected into three, they breathe And like a tree There is one root, and independent branches They live their lives despite all tensions Like three dimensions, they exist Under the thinnest domes The multiverse is their execution The global cataclysm destroyed the worlds And it will never be forgotten Despite the treatment Our hero is condemned Turn apart, he never knows What world is real But is there a real world? How can we understand? The cell is split into three The triple self in agony Is lost and never rests The same are muscles, bones, and kin It never knows that it has been Forgotten and always crashed In the dimension with no borders It doesn’t see the normal order Of things around and deep within Input conditions were not light With social laws as burdens Which are blindly Disfiguring the newborn mind