Written In Gray, this Westfield, North Carolina based band have been active since 2013 and after a demo and an EP they released the single 'What's Done Is Done'. Their older material isn't available, at least on their Bandcamp page, so it's impossible to explore their roots.

Taking early noughties' style metalcore which mingled with melodic death metal the Gothenburg way, is what this song is about. Speedy melodic death metal riff, double kick drumming, and scream-growled vocals start the song. Then comes mid-paced part with catchy lead guitar work and clean vocals, which are akin to Trivium's Matt Heafy, and not the whining style so often heard. This all-around well performed, with some neat cymbal tricks from the drummer. We also get breakdown part and boosted kick drum hits. Alas, those annoying compulsory metalcore stunts... The modern "all out, loud!" production job is mandatory, I guess.

Only the clean vocals are somewhat characteristic in this song (there's also an okay line of them on breakdown part, by the way). The music is filled with so many traits that made metalcore old as soon as it was invented. What the heck can be said about a song like this, then?! I haven't done single song reviews before because I'm old-school kind of a guy; I like EP's or albums that really illustrate a band. But this is 2020 and I reluctantly went and did this.

"From outside I seem okay,
Inside, I'm losing,
battles I fight every day,
It's so confusing "

See, what's confusing are two new singles from the band are very much different with their grunge rock and pop music leanings. Written In Gray seem to be bandwagoners. I personally find this single to be their worst, but if you dig earlier Trivium and stuff like that (remember what I wrote about metalcore above?!?!), this might appeal to you.

Rating: 3½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
04/16/2020 13:29