Artist: Grey Shack
Album: Step Outside
Label: Roadcrew Records
Mixed and Mastered by: Toby Joseph
Release Date: 1st September, 2012
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Hard Rock – one of the most popular genres there is. Blues – one of the easiest sounding, but tough to play genres around. When both of these were mixed, in just the right proportion, in 2007 by a group of musicians from Chennai, Grey Shack was formed. The four piece band has been creating some waves since their inception and their album – Step Outside demonstrates this exactly. Taking influences from the likes of AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine; the band creates their own sound and demands respect for all of their compositions.
Grey Shack are –
Rohan Sen – Vocals; Vikram Vivekanand – Guitars; Conrad Simmons – Bass; Vinay Ramakrishnan – Drums
The album is based on their journey as a band in their 5 years of existence. Personal experiences and the occasional rants are all a part of the perfect recipe for any Rock song, and that is one of the many reasons why the album is a Hard Rock lover’s delight. With a runtime of just over 31 minutes, each song in the album narrates a story in itself and the icing on the cake would be the guitar solos accompanying them. Tracks like Beautiful Man and Monkey Man have a definitive Grunge influence (strangely, along with the similarity in the music style, both the songs have the word “Man” in the title). While the riff in Beautiful Man also features a little dash of Blues style melody to spice things up, Monkey Man is more of a groovy riff. For 80’s/90’s Classic Rock music fans; Dirty City, Awake and New Day are a must listen. Awake and New Day reminded me of a few songs from Guns n Roses. Especially the part in Awake where the vocals are overlaid over the guitar solo; classic GnR stuff.
Throughout the album, two things stood out among all other things – the guitar solos and the bass lines. The guitar solos in each song is different, has a lot of feeling and most importantly – very well composed. No fancy sweep picking or shredding through a particular scale were there, just purely composed and well improvised guitar solos. The bass work on the other hand was marvellous! Being a four piece band without the second guitarist gives Conrad the responsibility to handle the rhythm and support Vikram with the riffs. And he does that with distinction; hard to see a qualified bassist like him these days.
The bottomline is – Step Outside is one hell of a release by Grey Shack. Truly a masterpiece and if you would ask me, it is one of the best albums by any Indian bands I’ve heard in recent times.
It’s really hard to select a top three from the album, as all of the songs are great in their own rights. But here goes my Top 3 (in no particular order):-
- One Night Stand
- New Day
- Monkey Man
Grey Shack – One Night Stand –
