When Nathan Gray released his first EP, he promptly described his music as "satan pop". Don't be fooled though; he's not sitting on a discoball praising Satan. "Until The Darkness Takes Us" has a dark core, despite some occasional catchy lines. Nathan uses his full vocal range to interpret his bitter and powerful lyrics to the point where it's difficult not to be overwhelmed by the intensity of songs like "Heathen Blood", "Damascus" or "Remains". Dan Smith, on the other hand, is artfully dressing his counterpart's anger with a dynamic and compelling instrumentation. It is important to point out that the record is heavily characterized by variety -enter the numerous influences of both musicians. Lyrically, it contains anthems of independance and defiance mostly over an emotional music background but that alone, apparently, is not enough. How do these fellas spice things up? With intervals. They cheekily interrupt the expected flow and introduce a high contrast of upbeat, electronic elements and dark wave tempos, beautifully intertwining with lamenting pianos, and even a certain aggressive industrial tone. The listener might be thrown off by these changes, let alone on a debut album which is by default experimental, but let's be honest; the outcome of this combination of sounds was a risk worth taking. In fact, it raised the bar for the next album. Had the compositions been any less calculated, the album would've lost all momentum.
After winning the bet of the studio, the real challenge now will be the live performance. We will be catching Nathan Gray Collective in a few weeks, so make sure to follow us on social media for reports and updates.
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