The First Shade of

This is the debut album from this French one man project. Grey was started in 2003, the same year a demo came out, but besides that demo this album is all that this band has released. And it is one great release. This CD is a great example of the old cliché "Never judge a book by its cover". At first glance this CD appears to be almost a pop album, and after a short examination of the booklet I thought that this was some crappy goth, rock, barley Metal album, but I was terribly wrong. When I for the first time listened to this CD I was very surprised. I was expecting some EMO guy wailing about his girlfriend and a field of flowers but instead I get raw, slow misanthropic Black Metal. Or actually this is more in the vein of Doom Metal with a lot of Black metal elements fused into the music. You know what I mean really slow music with riffs that are based in Doom Metal but with a raw and harsh edge that is more Black Metal. The drums are a bit Black Metal, but they are programmed so I try to pay as little attention as possible to the drums since programmed drums done this way only annoys me. The voice in particular is very Black Metal, with a lot of cries and screams of hate, but also a lot of deep growls. The Black Metal element on this album I think is inspired by Shining, Forgotten Tomb and to some extent Thorns, but that feels like the wrong way to describe Grey's music. The best way it to say that it's cold, mechanical and bleak Metal.

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