Russia's Grenouer move further on from their past's death metal style. Nowadays they have much more "machiney" sound, maybe "electronic", too. With the EP 'Try' (seems to be at least 3 different versions of this, and one is a full length, if I'm right) the band at times pounded pretty intense rhythmic stuff, with some melodiousness injected into some of the songs.
'Lifelong Days' has some ultra-heavy rhythmic stuff, like the opener 'Indecent Loaylty' shows. The guitar and the bass are truly burrowing. The song also presents more melodic side of the band. During the album, Grenouer appears to sound like a mixture of Fear Factory, Prong, Mudvayne and on the closer 'Patience', Stinkin Fart. Oops, I mean Linkin Park. Hopefully this last card is not the band's future plan. Grenouer have truly moved on from their death metal roots, since they have really been abandoned now. There's a lot of synths and effected vocals. Disharmonic guitar work meet modern American style. The rhythms vary from danceable to math-stuff (e.g. 'With no Concern' owes like hell to Meshuggah). Vocals go from hoarse shouting to clean ones (some bad, but generally well listenable), from growl to effected. The shout style is in the lead here. The Anssi Kippo production is very hefty and perfectly fits with the music. Otherwise it could be way too close to pop...
Grenouer have created a bit too unvarying trip to the sound of heavy machinery. When it rolls well, it rolls on like a Zhiguli (a.k.a. Lada, my family had one; it never broke, it started no matter how cold, it moved without gas... What a legend!), but it also often goes into idle running. Sometimes it tends to totally pass by, since some songs lack of grabbing ideas, and to tell the truth, it gets pretty repeating after a while. Whereas some things have quite a lot of permutation, some things remain the same. The band have mutated. Some like it, some don't, that is the brutal truth when this kind of stunt has been made.
Rating: 5+ (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Lane
08/17/2009 18:30
