“Leprosy” is the first single proper to be taken from the debut album Gate Of Grief by WHITE RING. Dark, brooding, abrasive and ethereal all at once, the track draws from a varied and challenging palette, steeped in existential dread. It was the first song they wrote for the album, as Bryan Kurkimilis explains; “This song was the first time we really wanted to start exploring aggression in our music.”
Gate Of Grief arrives a full eight years since WHITE RING’s benchmark EP, Black Earth That Made Me, which sold out almost instantly, making their records some of the most highly sought after on the underground scene and earning them a cult following across the globe. It was reissued by Rocket Girl in 2011 and still continues to sell in voluminous amounts.
WHITE RING were originally formed by Bryan Kurkimilis and Kendra Malia, before they were joined by Adina Viarengo, with Bryan and Adina currently touring as a duo. One of the most acclaimed proponents of the “Witch House” movement, WHITE RING blend heavy, distorted electronics with eerie, unsettling vocals. However, their new material, created over the course of seven years, pushes the boundaries further, subverting genre ideas and mashing them all together, with industrial, metal, rave, chopped and screwed, rap, grunge, neo folk, post punk and new wave all in the mix. As Bryan explains; “We treat our influences like tools to create a certain feeling. We are interested in covering more ground than sticking to a certain formula.”
