What would you expect from a band, starting their album with some kinda classical SIX FEET UNDER groove, soon to be followed by guitar riffs that recalls SEPULTURA’s "Chaos A.D." to "Roots Bloody Roots" era? Old fashioned Death / Thrash Metal with some modern influences maybe? Well, these dudes from Lithuania are far from being an unexperienced band, as they deliver some type of well crafted, mid paced Death Metal with Thrash trademarks. This means they are aware of handling their instruments the right way, without delivering something extra ordinary: no surprise effects, just plain, simple and brutal music. And it seems as if they do best, with sticking to the more tempered speed; ‘My Demon’ comes around with some blasting that occurs very misplaced and clumsy as well, but gets its drive while dwelling in mid- to up-tempo. I would like to emphasize the vocals. Imagine a mix of Pascal Jorgensen (MASSACRA) and Andy Kaina (MESSIAH) and you’re close to what you’ll get to hear on "Pray.Crawl.Suffer". Very good death growls, not too guttural, yet sinister and threatening anyway. During those bulldozing, crawling parts like in ‘New Eye’ pretty show the whole intensity, that vocalist Rimtautas Piskarskas is able to create. You may ask yourself by now what I had in mind when I mentioned those modern influences. Well, there are some gimmicks like those weird additional vocals in ‘Masquerade’ that sound like using a larynx microphone or even that dissonant riffing in ‘Holy Bitch’ which reminds me of MESHUGGAH. Never got into their music and never understood the hype around that band. STORMGREY is neither fish nor fowl and I guess they need some more time to find their own identity to establish themselves in the world of brutal Metal, whether it is Death or Thrash. They should get rid of these redundant ingredients and get more focused on what they are really good at: creating simple but effective, pounding Death / Thrash, spiced with some double bass penetration when needed, brutal vocals and memorable riffing. No more no less. File under Florida groove meets MESSIAH (’91-’94) and you are quite close to the world of STORMGREY. For the daredevils, get your information here: www.facebook.com/stormgreyofficial, www.vicrecords.com