Metal Underground.com

If only it happened more often, an album that comes along and completely floors you with its breathtaking beauty. An album that combines all the elements of a great song and blends them together with a brush on an artist’s pallet. Grayceon’s debut self-titled album is just that, a record filled from end to end with cascading riffs, gorgeous melodies, and stunning musicianship that puts the listener into a completely different realm and leaves them there, wondering what they just experienced.

“Grayceon” begins with the graceful “Sounds Like Thunder,” which is a song that uses the true texture and emotions capable of being expressed through pure sound. Dreadful, depressing tones ring through the background from the cello work of Jackie Perez-Gratz as the guitar work of Max Doyle intertwines through the haunting echoes of the cello. The song, or more suited: the journey, builds its way up to a churning sea of down tuned Mastodonic riffage and rolling drums. It’s an absolute pleasure to listen to and is a flawless album opener that sets up the rest of the album perfectly.

“Song For You” has a fantastic folk metal vibe that begins the track, with its bouncy and extremely technical cello work. If Jackie Perez-Gratz is not the best electric cello player in the world then she is at least right there at second. “Song For You” is a faster and for the most part heavier song that uses it’s short length to still craft an epic composition that fits in with all the other moods on the disc.

“Into the Deep” is a foreboding song that gives off the sense of worry and dread. The dual male/female vocals build up layers of eerie sound and work well at building atmosphere. While not as technical as the previous track, there is still so much creativity seeping through the elegant sounds that Grayceon create. While always forward-thinking and immensely impressive, the song never bleeds into the area of self indulgence of pretentiousness. “Into the Deep” is the definition of a band who has mastered the art of the composition.

The album ends with the epic, twenty minute monster simply titled “Ride.” Such a perfect title that is, as the song takes the listener on a ride through the musical territories of thrash, classical, post-rock and everything in between. The length of “Ride” does not hold the song back, as the listener is quickly thrown into a tranquil trance. A band has never sounded so cohesive and on the same page as Grayceon do on their debut, never once falling out of perfect musical symmetry with one another. “Ride” uses every ability the band possesses to craft an incredible end to an incredible album.

Grayceon is easily one of metal’s most underrated bands. While by default thrown into the genre of cello metal, Grayceon offers so much more than other acts such as Apocalyptica. With all the band’s members being under the age of thirty there is still much to look forward to from a band that already nailed it to perfection on the debut release.