I might be biased because Greber hauled my ass across Europe as their merch guy on what is officially known as The Greatest Most Fun Tour Ever™ tour with Berlin-via-Italy D-beat demons Humanity is a Curse back in 2019 (and we all have the tattoos to prove it!), but the delightful duo from the small southern Ontario city of Cambridge are one of my favourites of those bands that know their way around a rhythmic racket. Featuring ex-Fuck the Facts bassist/vocalist Marc Bourgon on bass and vocals and Biipiigwan and The Great Sabatini drummer/vocalist Steve Vargas on drums and vocals, the best buds and rumbling sound lifers are at least seven releases deep into a discography that goes back to 2010. This includes the band’s forthcoming fourth album, Fright Without which grows their combining of elements of punishing sludge, doom, grind and metallic hardcore into a frantic wall of sound that reminds as much of Swans, Napalm Death and Coalesce as it does Big Business, Burnt by the Sun and Painkiller. As usual, we’re giving you the opportunity to listen for yourself and reject and resent being talked at via a stream of their latest below.
When asked what the deal is with this new album, Bourgon responded: “Our newest record, entitled Fright Without, took a lot of janky turns in its creation. From the nucleus of us putting the structures of the songs together to fleshing out some of the finer points of its concepts, the piece really ended up a long way from where it started. Being a bass and drum-only band has its limitations and I feel like on this record we push the boundaries of what we were able to do with just those elements. For me, it’s our strongest work lyrically and musically. The main theme of the album is pretty much dancing in an echoless world where any sort of sense is lost and you’re left holding the bag of your life and your feelings. We tried to tell as many different stories as we could and I feel as though a small valve gets opened ever so slightly when we perform anything off this record. We were blessed to have Kurt Ballou do the mixing and Steve and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out sonically. So here it is in its rawest/most polished form. An audio Polaroid of where we were over the past 4 years. We hope you enjoy it!”
Fright Without is slated for release on September 9, 2022 (that’s tomorrow!) and will be available from the following labels: Ancient Temple and Nofuneral for vinyl, CD, and cassette in Canada; Hibernation Release for vinyl in the USA, and 7 Degrees and Fresh Outbreak for vinyl in Europe.
