Grosh - Whether or Not you Know

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GROSH, the acronym of GRace Lougen (guitar) and jOSH English (drums) – the founding members, is rock band from Buffalo, NY. Founded in 2017, they joined forces in 2018 with lead singer Megan Brown and bassist Dylan Hund, and in 2019 they have released the debut rock album “Whether or Not you Know”. The album opens with “More to life”, where the band reveals their sound: a classic thou hard rock, with influences from band like Led Zeppelin (on the classic side) to Rival Sons (on the modern side). I like the guitar riffing, I like the rhythm section, with a super present bass, and a superb drumming, not to mention the voice of Megan Brown, powerful but at the same time delicate and warm.

One of the highlight is the following “Every time” (in the link below is a demo version with Grace Lougen on voice). I like the rousing rhythm as well as the song groove. One of the other highlight of the album is, in my opinion, “I bet you did”: the sound is more modern than the previous one, and I love the chorus. The riffing, as well as the melody, of “High tide”, remind me of some old rock that I was listening I think something like 25-30 years ago: and please read it in the positive way, since I love that sound of the old good days.

“Roads remember” is a mellow, melodic and melancholic ballad, perfect riding back home on a dust highway. The short “Lil’ crazy” highlights the quality as bassist of Dylan Hund while the following “Refuse” instead shows the quality of the riffing of Grace Lougen and the drumming of Josh English (by the way, the instrumental work in general in this album is impressive). A real big surprise for me is the opening riff of “Something new”, with its distorted guitar and his uptempo that sounds almost thrashy, and then transforming to a classic rock song with sudden accelerations: although I like the song, I think this is the only episode where I do not like the guitar sound, sounding too rough. The album closes with the delicate “Piece of mind”, which is another highlight of the album, and where you cannot only appreciate the music but also the remarkable work that has been done on the lyric side.

“Whether or not you know” delivers a solid performance from a newcomer in the hard rock scene; GROSH is a band made of very talented musicians, a superb guitarist, an impressive rhythm section and a remarkable singer, and they have delivered an enjoyable and elegant debut album, full of energy and with great melodies. They have been able to dig in the past and add a personal note in the sound they are offering: in my opinion, a pleasant surprise in the current panorama that, I am pretty sure, will make people talk about them.

Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Memorability: 7
Production: 7