Rating: NNNN
Start your album with a track called Guy Picciotto and you’re bound to get Fugazi and Rites of Spring comparisons. Toronto’s Greys do offer up a hard-charging, clear-visioned slab of post-hardcore with hooky anthemic vocals on their debut album, but they complement it with grunge sludge, progressive songwriting and churning noise. They make your average punk band sound incredibly lazy.
Alienation, disappointment, anger and rejection are the order of the day. Brief musical bridges, transitions and time changes add wicked surprises. Flip Yr Lid and Adderall bring Nirvana to mind (In Utero is a noted influence, according to the four-piece), while Pretty Grim’s coils of disorienting guitar noise spiral upward as singer/guitarist Shehzaad Jiwani rails, “No one loves you like they say they do!”
Riveting, memorable, substantial stuff that’ll make you sit up and listen, and possibly wear you out by the 11th song.
Top track: Pretty Grim
Greys play Wednesday (June 18) at Smiling Buddha, Friday (June 20) at the Horseshoe and Sunday (June 22) at the Edward Day Gallery as part of NXNE.
