Shades Of Gray

The old saying goes, “behind every great man is a great woman” -- though it seems the music industry has modified it to read, “behind every great band is a great breakup."
This stereotype has held true through music history. There have been far more amazing songs hatched from a broken heart than not, but sometimes with a personal loss comes a band’s gain. This theory proves itself once again for underground rockers, Shades of Gray.
SOG isn’t a freshman in the school of rock. In fact they’ve been packing venues and running up bar tabs together for years, but have just recently reinvented themselves after a year long break. During this stint the members had some time to repair broken bones as well as broken hearts, and have come back to the scene with a vengeance.
“We all went our separate ways during the break. This gave us a chance to focus on our individual styles -- now we are back and inevitably have gotten better as a whole,” says drummer, Drew Helstrom. “The new music has evolved because of it. We went from playing the kind of stuff that we use to listen to -- trying to stay current with the music industry -- to now only playing what we want. What was ‘in’ then isn’t now. We went through that phase and I’m glad we are out of it. Our style and our music have grown so much since we parted -- we’ve come back much stronger.”
To say that SOG’s new material is only “stronger” is an understatement. The boys have successfully given birth to a new band… a much more polished, practiced, and passionate reincarnation of their former group. Their name may be the same, but their musical balls have dropped -- if you get the drift.
Lead singer Jason Brownie credits a broken heart to much of the band’s new sound. It’s bitter, it’s rough -- it was probably unshaven and hung-over for months -- but that’s that kind of influence SOG needed to get their edge back.
“We’ve gone back to our roots,” claims Brownie. “The new material has a very Breaking Benjamin, Nickelback, Sevendust type feel.”
With new songs like Breathe, Let It Burn and Hide and Freak, it’s hard not to develop a grudge against whoever was responsible for these lyrics, but even harder to stop yourself from thanking them for being the catalyst for such raw and uncensored rock and roll.
Lyrics like, (from the edgy-hardcore song, Breathe) “if killing me is what you set out to do, just cut into my heart a little deeper... you’re almost through”, instantaneously demand the audience's attention. But it isn’t just the new lyrics that are making heads bang harder to SOG songs -- each musician has added their own element to complete this impassioned ensemble.
As Brownie belts through Breathe, strapped with a red face and white knuckles, seeming just as affected by the song as when he wrote it -- guitarist, Mike Laden, makes kinky-unprotected love to his axe with such ease as it screams out riffs at the height of the song’s musical climax. Meanwhile, bassist, Russ Richey picks and slaps his way into every girl’s heart with his bass techniques and Helstrom whales on each drum as if they were lying, cheating ex-girlfriends. The boys are back, better and boasting of bad-ass performances.
"Breathe is a heavy, heavy song,” states Helstrom. “It’s fuller, it’s thicker, and it’s chunkier. We are much tighter these days.”
SOG didn’t forget where they came from during their transition from alternative rock to hard rock though. They have decided to keep many of their favorite older songs in rotation, and have tried to stay an equal-opportunity rock band by even writing a couple of alternative rock tunes to please their loyal fans too.
More alternative jams like Beautiful Disease and Everything Changes start out acoustic and flow into the classic SOG sound that we are so familiar with; while Fake and Maybe Tomorrow are fresh combinations of the two extreme sounds.
Brownie adds, “They (the new material) are all fun, riff based songs that challenge us as musicians. It's a great feeling getting back to doing what we love.”
The boys recently dove headfirst back into the scene with a new bassist, new sound and new lyrics, and are hoping to head back into the studio as soon as possible. Keep an eye out for show dates -- SOG is working hard to get to a venue near you!
Shades of Gray- Let It Burn

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Shades of Gray- Everything Changes

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