To start I took a whole bunch of notes on White Mice's Ganjahovedose and realized afterward that I missed something kind of big about this band, no guitars. White Mice operates as a three-piece and that may be the only truly normal thing about them. They use drums, bass and most oddly an oscillator to make some of the strangest noise metal noise that I've heard in quite awhile.
For some background I'll take you back a bit. This is the band's sixth full-length amongst a bunch of EPs and other releases. They, like The Locust, wear masks in all public appearances, only theirs make them look like white mice that have been experimented on. This only starts to match the strange almost other worldliness of their music and the rest of their aesthetic.
Everything about Ganjahovedose is strangely psychedelic. It's almost as if they're taking you on a an acid fueled trip through the gates of hell. The album starts with clattering drums and a distorted bass riff. These two things are the bottom line to the sound of the band. The bass is always heavy in the mix, always distorted and strangely compelling. The drums are meticulous but always sound as though the drummers kit is on the verge of collapse while the recording is going on. Everything about this is bowel rumbling in the same sense as every stoner metal band on earth. This is where the difference lies, the oscillator starts in and sounds like a dentists drill is about to close in. The vocals sound like Satan, I don't mean this in the "brootal" death metal sense; this is what I imagine Satan sounded like when I was really young and watching the "Exorcist". This is only the start of the mindfudgery that the band offers. Seemingly at random but at some point in every song the singer will abuse the echo chamber making his voice sound like Ozzy's at the begining of the song "Iron Man."
This album is truly a strong album and a rather stand alone piece. I truly can't think of another band that really sounds like these guys. The downside of that fact is also the fact that I'm not entirely sure that I'd want another band ,let alone a trend of bands, sounding like this. I am disturbed by the idea that someone somewhere would listen to this while driving. Either they'd space out and kill or just snap into a delusional state and kill - either way this would go badly. Ganjahovedose is truly unpleasant in all the right ways. If you want something that sounds like a acid addled Merzbow taking mushrooms with a wierd drummer and a bassplayer that has a broken distortion pedal than you need to hear this. This isn't metal or psych or electronic - it is truly messed up.
