A Gram Trip – If We Leaf Tomorrow

My Metal Revolution inbox brims with publicists digitally elbowing one another, record labels touting their next release in lengthy word salad emails. It’s a good “problem” to have. More new music than I can remember since my days working for a record label. Another self-released band review. This might be a trend.

A Gram Trip is a band without an ego. Very little information is available about this Croatian quartet, hailing from Zagreb. No social media advertised on their recently released EP, If We Leaf Tomorrow. You got to dig deeper.

A quick search, they have Instagram, Facebook and Bandcamp. They are out there, somewhere in the electronic fog. Their announcement for their latest release is brief. Less than 50 words. Straight and to the point. We’re a band, we have a new release. Here it is. It feels like the trio don’t care if you listen to their band, because they know they’re good. No prior knowledge of, A Gram Trip, gave their one full-length album, Long Overdue one listen. It was okay. The production was the weak link. Now, that aside, their 3 song EP released April this year, is a ripper. From the intro my attention was grabbed.

The intro to the first track, “Dead Air” sounds like a sun warped Black Sabbath vinyl album. Heavy, slow and distorted. A six-minute doom monster track. About the 4-minute mark, the bridge is straight up early 80s punk, like the legendary punk outfit from the UK, the Sub|Humans. The vocals remind me of the 90s stoner doom group, Bongzilla. The song is distorted, mean, rhythmic and hypnotic. The line in the chorus is on point, “mind bender, endless drifter, dead air”. The second song, “Quiet Nights” is also down tempo. The bridge is in the German metal great Scorpions vein. A stoner/doom/psychedelia sound. Over three songs, this one sonically stands out. It isn’t the best song on the EP, there is not a bad song. It goes to show their musicianship. The third and final song, “Seven Leaf Artillery” is all doom, heavy, punishing. The song title might be a pun on the White Stripes song, if it is, I like it. More guitar work in the bridge channeling the 70s- and 80s-Euro metal greats. The outro is a change of pace, hearing post punk sounds, Cave In comes to mind. For fans of Coroner, Cathedral and Sleep, the four from Zagreb will impress.