Just when it feels like there are way too many "post-black metal" bands all doing the same thing, along comes a band like Ukraine's White Ward, who take the meaning of "post-" far beyond reverb and tremolo picking. Most notably, they make good use of a sax. I mentioned above that Dreadnought have sax too (2017 = year of sax metal?), but Dreadnought's sax is subtle compared to White Ward. On opening song "Deviant Shapes," after an onslaught of blast beats and harsh screams, White Ward cut the distortion and go into a chilled-out jazzy section where the sax becomes the lead instrument. Jazz and metal have blended before, but it's still not every day you hear a band do it as seamlessly as White Ward do. And they don't just do it that one time; they do it on most songs on Futility Report, and it always works.

Futility Report also reaches far beyond "jazz and black metal." White Ward work in electronics that at various times have elements of glitch, future garage, trip-hop, industrial, and breakbeat, and even their heavy parts aren't just pulling from traditional black metal. Second song "Stillborn Knowledge" has a part where glitchy electronics and clean guitars make way for sax-aided NeurIsis post-metal, and then that part makes way for some metalcore chugs. And compared to the atmospheric vocal approach a lot of their peers take, White Ward's screams are in your face and rooted in hardcore. On paper, it can sound like White Ward are trying to do too much. Plenty of bands try to bring a zillion different styles of music together and the results are often more impressive than they are enjoyable. What's so astounding about White Ward is that they make it sound so incredibly natural. If you don't believe it from reading about it, just one listen to the album should change your mind.