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Grenouer > The Odour o' Folly > Reviews
Grenouer - The Odour o' Folly

Grenouer's style hopping era (Part 1) - 56%

hells_unicorn, February 1st, 2011

Grenouer are something of a unique phenomenon in 1990s metal circle, being a Russian band with international exposure for one. But from a stylistic standpoint, this fact is made doubly so, as they’ve tended to hop back and forth between a couple of variants of death/thrash, often taking nods from the 90s half-thrash in the case of the latter and also having a slight NYHC tendency to their interpretation. Though their earlier albums have managed to slip out of print after a decade of circulation, they had garnered enough attention and respect to merit having 2 of their earlier works rereleased together, and in the process further underscoring the heavy variations in the band’s direction.

Of these two releases that surrounded the turn of the millennium, “The Odour O’Folly” is clearly the weaker and more inconsistent of the two. This problem could be chalked up to a transitional flirtation with death n’ roll and hardcore, which has offered a hybrid of several styles that sound extremely muddled and disorganized. Sometimes the format works and a slightly rocking version of morose Thrash emerges in the cases of “Confident” and “Soulhunters (Spiritual Arches)”, and at others a sloppy rehash of Six Feet Under with a tiny bit of Crowbar occurs such as the boring and unintentionally funny opening song “Your Beast Tonight”. Some of this could maybe be blamed on an outright ridiculous vocal delivery out of Andrej, who likewise butchers the vocal delivery on the “Take On Me” cover, and further bolstering my own prejudice against death metal bands doing pop/rock covers.

The mixed bag tendencies of this album don’t so much end with the stylistic trappings of the album, but cut through into the overall quality of the product. Cramming this many contrasting styles can work when all elements are carefully attended to, particularly songwriting and production (hear Into Eternity for an example), and that is where this comes up just a tad bit short. These songs often tend to come and go, offering a couple of solid riffs, but usually meandering back and forth before closing out. The drum sound is a bit clanking and treble heavy, but ultimately the muddy guitar sound is what sabotages things, particularly when the thrash work kicks in. Ultimately the thing that holds this backs is the slavish modernism it exhibits, and it might have been served a little better if the band had elected to go all the way on either the sludge side or the crunchy thrash side.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-obsever.com) as part of the 2009 double album reissue on February 1, 2011.

Grenouer The Odour of Folly - 75%

SkilledDick, March 20th, 2007

This is Grenouer’s third album recorded in 2000, it has a funny title and venomous front cover. Well, this is a reasonable thrash& death album with rock and roll somewhere in between. Grenouer seemed to be very fond of Entombed and they really managed to create an album related to Uprising of the Swedes. The basic difference is less of guitar solos and different vocals in Jeff Walker manner.

The album has 8 original songs and live track, you are not mistaken this is A-Ha cover performed by a death metal combo. The Odour O’ Folly has proper sound and demonstrate the band’s talent to rock and to crash down. Grenouer can be very fast (In-Sect) and moderate (Mind Ruins). They know how to drive in nails in your palms with a smile on the face (Skittle Man). It is a big shame that the band did not get a proper record deal and didn’t play on big festivals for it is easy to imagine that the material looks designed specially for stage. Still, hopefully the band will win fame ‘cause their artistry truly deserve it.