reax music magazine :: music + culture » Reviews » Secret and Whisper - Great White Whale

It's never a good thing when an album is plastered with the names of other bands. While it may be a handy reference tool for some looking for bands similar to ones they already love, it almost always tunes your ears to hear similarities that you might not normally hear. That being said, I would highly recommend Secret & Whisper's Great White Whale, as long as you don't read the stickers affixed to the package. While the promotional tag points out some obvious similarities to bands like Circa Survive and Saosin, this album stands on its own. The unfortunate fallout from seeing what their label wants you to compare them to is that it may take a few listens before you realize it.

The instrumentation is all very post-hardcore and metalcore, with tremendous breakdowns, hooky melodic leads and inventive time-signature changes. Drummer Ryan Loerke is able to pull off some amazingly polyrhythmic patterns while keeping in perfect time. Vocally, Charles Furney does channel Anthony Green's brilliant counter tenor at certain points, but his voice has a much fuller quality to it, he is able to swing to a much lower register without dropping to a whisper. And when Furney wails you can almost feel veins popping in his neck.

There is a distinct lack of song structure on the majority of the tracks on Great White Whale but I think that can be attributed to this being their first outing as Secret & Whisper. While all of the members except Charles Furney have spent time together in the now defunct Stutterfly, it takes time for a band to develop as a cohesive unit when any major contributor to the songwriting process is introduced. All that considered, Great White Whale is still a fantastic listen and it will undoubtedly be in heavy rotation in my car/iPod/home stereo for a while. - Scott Jenson