Self-released
Release date: June 1, 2020
Production: Grizl
Album length: 54.07 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
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Grizl are a rock band from Brežice, made up of five seasoned musicians led by guitarist and vocalist Zoran Zlatič. Yep. Five. In the five years since their debut »17 mečev« came out in 2015, Grizl have grown from a quartet into a quintet. They now have two guitarists. The video for the song V mojih žilah, shot and released in 2018, already hinted at that. New member Jure Turel is definitely a welcome addition, since he takes some of the load off Zoran in parts of the songs, so Zoran can focus more on the vocals. The new songs have also grown in terms of solos, which both guitarists now contribute, not to mention the sound itself and the extra guitar “embellishments” (fills) in the transitions, which Jure can also layer “under” Zoran’s vocal lines.
Grizl are a band still developing their own musical style. At its core it’s hard rock, but you can hear quite a few genre detours in it, especially toward the old-school classic heavy rock of the seventies, blues and rhythm & blues, and thanks to the hugely active rhythm section, especially the often distinctly springy, bouncy bass figures, the undertone is frequently funked-up and “groovy”. The album’s first track, Povej mi, has a pleasing contrast in the chorus with a classic rock’n’roll phrasing trick. Overall, »Pod pritiskom« builds up quite a lot of sonic weight and breadth. It’s heavier on the distortion than its predecessor, which, interestingly, makes you wonder whether the pop character of Zoran’s vocal tone is at times almost too slight. Even though he has polished the vocals even further on the new record, and they’re pushed way up in the mix.
For the new album Grizl cranked their sound up a notch, bristling and steel-hardened. The guitars are sonically fatter and snarlier. In keeping with the album’s title, the vibe mirrors the hard and above all strange times of social absurdities and anomalies we’re witnessing. With all that voltage of seething negativity, the sky is cracking, wanting to smash into the Earth. Under the excessive pressure of humanity. In terms of energy and musical composition, »Pod pritiskom« is also darker than its predecessor, which could come across as cheeky, cheerful and playful too. »Pod pritiskom« feels like the hard landing of the little guy on the ground of reality, with all illusions dissolved before it … One of the few “mischievous” moments is captured in the fun lyrics of the song Ljudmila, which grows from a predictable “blues waltz” into one of the album’s most vivid instrumental jams (the closing part of the song). The song lengths hint at that too, as they rarely come in under five minutes. Grizl also stand out for adding extra vocal harmonies to the lead vocal in their songs, which is mostly a rarity on the Slovenian rock scene. These gratefully contrast with the moods of the songs themselves, deepening what feels like real drama theater.
Grizl are a quintet of excellent musicians, and you can feel in their playing that they’re superb instrumentalists, that they play and rehearse together a whole lot, that they’ve racked up a fair few miles, and that their original material is mostly born at group jams. The compositions grow out of jams, and you feel that at every step of an album that’s fairly complex, let’s say committed and ambitiously structured, especially when it comes to vocal melodies, so it takes quite a few spins to sink in. In the lead motifs the band constantly looks for room to take that same motif at least a little differently, or to add different ornaments to it from round to round, which only expresses the playful nature of a quintet that struggles to stay in a fixed motif format. Predanič definitely slips some in, being often “sentenced” on the new album to holding down chunky Hammond lines that make contrasting company for the guitar phrasing, and in that respect even a few jazzy quirks, as happens a few times in the aforementioned Ljudmila or in one of the new album’s most sophisticated songs, the excellent Jeza bogov.
What certainly also helps the band sound different from everything else crawling around the Slovenian music scene are the Slovenian lyrics, which have a good measure of both personal confession and social criticism and speak to you with the required dose of sharp intellect. There’s quite a lot of democracy in the team when it comes to the ideas and expression of the individual quintet members, so the songs are quite demandingly arranged and more complex than you’d usually expect from bands in this format. But there’s something. »Pod pritiskom« strengthens the distinctive voice of Grizl’s hard rock, which was established with the predecessor “17 mečev”, and with it the band expands the artistry of their own artistic essence and musical charisma. Independent and totally unburdened by trends. The natural way. And that honesty counts. In terms of song format, the album can also appeal in a retro-nostalgic way. As if the mid-eighties were back with us.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Povej Mi (03:55)
2. Pod Pritiskom (05:49)
3. Ne Bom Več Dolgo (04:47)
4. Odpri Srce (06:30)
5. Ljudmila (06:47)
6. Do Sonca (05:54)
7. Ti Me Ne Vidiš (04:27)
8. Jeza Bogov (05:41)
9. Sol Na Rane (04:29)
10. Vibriram (05:58)
Lineup:
Zoran Zlatič – vocals, guitar
Jure Turel – guitar
Matjaž Predanič – keyboards, backing vocals
Tomi Gregel – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ivica Gregel – drums
