Date: May 14th, 2023

Label: Self released

I like a band with a cool name. If they put some thought into the name, you’d hope they’d put some into the music too. That’s my theory, anyway.

A Gram Trip are from Zagreb and the old name for Zagreb, or one of the many, I should say, is Agram, which was the German language name used in in the Habsburg period (1527–1868) but may have been from Roman origin. Whichever it is, it’s a cool name and the “trip” part… drugs man…. At a guess.

When I first played this album, I thought it could have been recorded on a 4 track, because each instrument and the vocals are so clear and so defined. There’s no fucking with the sound, no fancy overdubs etc… and then I read it was recorded live in the studio, which made total sense… because that’s how it really sounds.

Musically, you could call this Doom, but it’s a bit edgier than that. Boki has some lung damaging pipes on him and his vocals are more shouted, more Punk in nature than a standard Doom vocalist. The bass is full on Doom and wow, the sound created by Karlo really drives this forward, kind of in the same way that Geezer Butler propels N.I.B, back in the early days of Black Sabbath.

In fact, I think it’s whole groove the band has created that drives this on. It’s a lot heavier than your average slice of Doom, which is probably why I like it so much.

As I mentioned there’s a slight Punk edge to this, which becomes more apparent on the sub 2 minute Speed Queen, which breaks up the longer tracks very nicely.

Don’t go expecting any fancy stuff here. This is raw, primal, stripped back… call it what you want, but it works. And more bands should do this as the “live in the studio” sound is so much more honest than computer generated crap that doesn’t have the right feel.

You can pre-order this album for just $1 via Bandcamp, which is an absolute bargain
https://agramtrip.bandcamp.com/album/long-overdue