'When you strip rock n roll down to it’s basic parts it is thrilling. White Swallow are a guitarist who plays a filthy, grungey blues assault staring into the eyes of an incredibly powerful drummer and they lock themselves into a filthy groove. It’s highly effective and beautifully powerful. This is band that could easily break out into an international scene.'
- John Robb, Louder Than War.
'In White Swallow, you have a duo that sound like the result of hundreds but you would be forgiven for expecting something minimalist, in the vein of the White Stripes. You’d be wrong though.' 'Everyone knows something special is going on; it’s just a question of how special.'
- Luke Beardsworth, Ark Mag (reviewing gig)
'A lot of people write ‘good songs’ nowadays. If you do a few back flips and get your abs out (a little too often for a heterosexual might I add) you’re a ‘songwriter’. So what makes an artist special? Meaning. That’s what. Meaning and honesty. Enter, White Swallow.
HHN (He Had Nothing) opens the EP. Mambo enters, his voice lurching over the declarative first strike of the guitar. Soon his comrade backs him up, the slice and fizz of Sam’s hi hat, making the lyrics cut deeper and the heart beat that bit faster. Then from the pit of Bobby’s stomach comes the cry of ‘bring in the bass” and to put it nicely, shit goes down. As if downing a shot of venom, Mambo comes back, snarling with his teeth bared whilst Sam lets rip. Welcome to Oto Bahar.
It would be very easy to dismiss the duo as a pair of riff spitting monsters. But that would be fatal.. Being a two piece every word, note and thud is felt, somewhere a little bit deeper than the ear. With the raw guitar and dooms-day kick drum, a somewhat eerie sensitivity is created. Yes, when they go big it’s nothing short of jaw breaking, but any band can do that, and probably to a bigger degree due to numbers. It’s when they pull it back, that White Swallow have the capability of not only breaking your face, but also your heart. What they do in these sections isn’t pretty, it’s just real.
A great example of this is Drawing Hands. From the introduction of Bobby’s worn, dulcet tones, over the unrefined picked guitar to the almost regal riff towards the back end of the song, Drawing Hands feels like it’s been drained straight from the heart and poured on to the page. Packing just as much feeling as Bobby is the thunderous heartbeat of the duo, Sam Almond. Feeling and sensing the ebb and flow of Bobby, Sam reacts, sensitive and resolute. In a way the pair are performing to each other, each of them draining themselves of emotion onto the canvas of each song, one constantly equaling the other in passion.
Whilst each song is individually special, as in any EP, some tracks do reach that little bit deeper. My stand out track is The Belong Song. Unlike the other songs it isn’t dripping with riffs or intricacy. Sometimes you could accuse the band of relying on their break neck riffs. Not in this song. In darkness it starts, split only by the bleak picking of a guitar and a heartbeat kick drum. Then it awakes, and you are taken on the search for belonging on the back of the rolling snare and the chugging guitar, whilst a vocal croons on. Then over a pained cry the pair step up again, gnarled and vicious with their claws bared. That very transition is what makes this song, and the duo itself special. The combination of the lyrics of a tainted sonnet slashed and scarred with brain damaging sections of raw power. That is White Swallow.' 9/10
- Thomas Crompton, Ark Mag (Demo EP review)
