Review of Grey: "Grey EP"

A NEW CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED (on Twitter, of course).  Grey, the band with a name so short that finding stuff about it on Google searches is quite annoying (and searching “Grey band” gets me stuff like Dir En Grey, which is just a bit different).  Adding the album title doesn't help, too, because it’s “Grey EP”.

Grey is a band that describes itself as being “alternative rock/metal” which is a tag so generic that I’m pretty sure I could classify 90% of the stuff I listen to as being “alternative rock/metal”, especially since some circles classify metal as alternative.  I’d say that a more descriptive label for them is “hard rock”, which basically covers their general sound, with maybe a little metal-ish instrumentation creeping in every once in a while.  Not really any screaming here, though, ladies and djents.  That’s fine, though, because no screams are far preferable to badly done ones.

As opposed to Pyro, Ohio’s “the vocals are too damn high” approach, the singer here has a deeper, far less annoying tone.  I’d compare him to a deeper version of the Alter Bridge guy.  His range is decent, but not exactly amazing.  He’s good enough. 

The guitars have a nice, heavy sound.  Not particularly technical, but used in a method that lend to the vocals and give the songs some additional power.  Not really a heavy sort of powerful, more emotional. However, I do think that some of their songs had some parts thar are just begging for a speedier guitar section, but don't have one (which other songs of theirs prove that they can do).  This is definitely more the type of band that plays to your gut than to your head.

So, overall, this is a solid band.  However… they’re nothing amazing, at least to me.  Their songs are heartfelt, but just really don’t have that epic factor.  I’ve listened to a lot of hard rock in my day, and these guys don’t have many standout qualities.  They play their genre, and they play it well, but there isn’t much here that makes me go “I WANT THIS ON MY IPOD NOW SO I CAN LISTEN TO IT OVER AND OVER”.  I think these guys could probably make some pretty kickass stuff, just maybe make the sound a bit more technical… I guess I just like really fast songs more.  Yeah, that’s probably it.  It’s probably more of a personal taste thing than anything. 

Their best song is probably “We Have Crossed The Line”, because I think it showcases the most range and has some nice guitars in it, at least for the sort of band they are.  I like it.

(Sorry for the anemic post, but… well, they only have four songs!  And googling stuff about them is absurdly difficult, and I’m not mining their Twitter feed for tidbits, because I do like to at least pretend that I have a life.)