Review Summary: A short album that's not particularly mind blowing, but still entertaining to listen to
Truth be told, White Hospital were an eerie band. Formed in the early 80’s in Japan,
White Hospital were a short lived industrial project that only released one full-length, titled
Holocaust. To put it short,
Holocaust is the musical equivalent to a bad dream. The songs are either unsettling, featuring uncanny, muffled vocals, or they are loud and furious, featuring screams and growls distorted beyond belief.
The first two tracks basically summarize the album. “Hymn of Heaven” features a soft piano melody, backed up with what sounds like a choir. While the piano is nice and pretty, there’s a sort of uncanniness to the overall track. The near-perfect tone of the choir gives off a plastic, inhuman feel, making me as a listener almost uncomfortable. “Hymn of Heaven” is a track that, to an extent, confuses the listener, a track that makes them sit in their seat, unnerved. Basically, its purpose is to make it so that the last thing the listener wants to hear is “Robotomy Operation”.
If “Hymn of Heaven” was supposed to be eerie, then “Robotomy Operation” would be a nightmare. The track features screams that sound like they were being produced by a caged animal, and distorted, razor sharp vocals that, while practically unintelligible, sound like they’re saying some of the nastiest insults imaginable. The bass is thick as a brick, and the drums are like overworked machines that are ready to burst into flames. The sudden change in tone is so shocking that the possibility of getting whiplash from jolting your head in surprise is likely.
As mentioned earlier, the album is essentially these two tracks done differently. “Ginny Voice” features muffled feminine vocals that gives off an eerie, too-perfect vibe due to how “innocent” sounding the vocals are. The title track features a buzzy, loud bass layered with hateful shouts and yelps in a similar manner as “Robotomy Operation”. However, the main issue with the album is that it never peaks to anything spectacular. It’s consistent, as in that each track is about as good as the last, more or less.
For an obscure twenty minute album,
Holocaust is a pretty entertaining listen, even if it never reaches a status of true excellence. It also makes for a good gateway album for those looking to get into strange and noisy music.
