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If anything has been brought up and adorned by this team of veteran punks from Brest, it is well crafted moody punk songs. Their debut looks like a single from back in the day, GRISAILLE is no stranger to the heavy dose of melody, angst and desperation that characterize their other projects. But while all of these projects are rooted in the classic French territory, their sound here is also a nod to the Copenhagen/Umeå scene, reminiscent of late GORILLA ANGREB era with their twangy guitar chords or the flawless production on the early MASSHYSTERI records. You’ll get the best of both worlds on this single and much more. At last, their name (which means Gloom like in weather’s term) could also sound like a warning: GRISAILLE is about to settle down on you and you better be ready.
Our take: Debut two-song single from this two-piece group from Brest, France, featuring two members of Syndrome 81. While these two songs aren’t miles away from Syndrome 81’s gloomy, melodic punk, as the label’s description notes, there’s a good deal of 2000s Copenhagen in the mix too, with the atmosphere here recalling the more melodic bands from that scene like No Hope for the Kids and Gorilla Angreb. If Entre Deux Averses... had come out in the 2000s, I guarantee everyone would have compared them to the Wipers, which was the de rigueur reference for bands playing this kind of upbeat but sombre-sounding punk. We’ve heard a lot of music from this camp lately, and while the different projects (Syndrome 81, Mentalité 81, etc.) are cloaked in slightly different aesthetics, strong songwriting and meticulous production runs through all of them, and Grisaille is no different. Add these tracks to your “gloomy spring morning” playlist and play them while staring vacantly out the window, waiting for these folks to whip up their next batch of hits.