EPK – Greber – Fright Without (2022)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
For fans of Unearthly Trance, Man is the Bastard, Black Sheep Wall, Primitive Man, Cult Leader
Album Title: Fright Without
Release Date: September 9, 2022
Labels:
VINYL, CD, Cassette – CANADA – Ancient Temple / Nofuneral
VINYL – USA – Hibernation Release
VINYL – EUROPE – 7 Degrees / Fresh Outbreak
Pre-order – Vinyl/Cassette/CD – https://linktr.ee/greber
Tour Dates:
Sept 9 – Jack Burger – Kitchener, ON
Sept 10 – Roti – Ajax, ON
Sept 16 – Turbo Haus – Montreal, QC
Sept 17 – House of Targ – Ottawa, ON
Oct 7 – Crafts Heads Brewing – Windsor, ON
Oct 14 – Doors Pub – Hamilton, ON
Oct 15 – Onyx – Guelph, ON
“For this record, I (Marc), would get some ideas into a skeletal structure via some computer demos and then send them off to Steve to hash out some general ideas. From there we just ran the Christ out of them in our jam space and they morphed accordingly. I still get amped on hearing how Steve perceives the stuff I bring to the table. It’s never the way I hear it in my head and I couldn’t be happier with the way that we’ve evolved together over the years. It’s easy to take it for granted, but it’s something that I wholeheartedly cherish and love the dude to no end.
A big difference between Fright Without and our last record, Cemetery Preston, was that there were a lot fewer revisions. I could all too easily drive myself insane with the “make-song-better” process and I found that over time it was way too much stress and I couldn’t cope with doing it at that level anymore. Maybe if there were some clear-cut and qualitative progress made visible by the madness I would have had a harder time with the divorce but I love what we did with this record and am glad we switched up our approach.
Fright Without is a handleless staircase that disorients as much as it overwhelms. Our testament to suffering and hope, balance and woe, heaven and here. With Kurt Ballou lending his abilities to the mix we’re beyond happy with how the final product came to sound and we hope that the listener finds it to be as much of an escape as they do a confrontation.” – GREBER
Facebook.com/grebermetal | Instagram.com/grebermetal
Greber.bandcamp.com | Greber.bigcartel.com
#10 Greber – The National Loud Chart For the Week Ending: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 (earshot)
“Greber is here to do one thing, and it’s throw aural punches. The band is now streaming their new single “Into Silence” alongside a new video directed by Torin Langen, both of which are as fantastic as they are disorienting.” – Metal Injection
“Crazed and raging, it reaches fever pitches of savage rampaging. But even in a song (Tree Carving) that barely clears the minute-and-a-half mark, Greber do what they always do — shift gears and contort moods, and electrify the music with constantly changing fretwork and drum patterns. Oh yes, these dudes know how to spin heads as well as traumatize them.” – NoCleanSinging
“the riffs that power Fright Without are frequent and come in a variety of forms. Whether it’s the sludgy plod on songs like “Larkinitis” and “Rats of Subversion” or the full grindcore assault on “Fabricated Purpose” or “Into Silence”, there’s a surprising amount of variety on the record, an attention to textural detail that belies the band’s instinctual approach. While the riff may not be the most important structural element to every Greber song, it’s nevertheless the thing that first grabs the listener’s attention” – Exclaim
“the band’s forthcoming fourth album, Fright Without which grows their combining of elements of punishing sludge, doom, grind and metallic hardcore into a frantic wall of sound that reminds as much of Swans, Napalm Death and Coalesce as it does Big Business, Burnt by the Sun and Painkiller.” – Decibel Magazine
“In short – listen to “Nosebleed” and you’ll very quickly get a feel for what Greber are all about… A wholly frantic and intense listen, Fright Without will probably leave you a little disorientated, but you will feel all the better for it.” – Everything Is Noise
“It goes without saying that Fright Without is an intensely oppressive record, but given that it only spends half an hour trying to suffocate you it’s definitely worth letting it have a go. If you’re a fan of the bands mentioned at the top of this review (Mastiff, Helpless, and Yautja) you should have no disappointments here, and the two-piece dynamic actually ends up working in Greber’s favour in that it sets them apart at least a touch from an increasingly crowded scene of bands devoted so proudly and exclusively to misery and mire.” – Noob Heavy
“If you know me, you know that I wouldn’t normally be one for grindcore, or powerviolence. Consider me converted, and we have Greber to thank. Fright Without further asserts them as a unique and essential player in the subgenre. Their deranged, yet intelligent approach has culminated in something truly affecting, and pretty damn awesome.” – Angry Metal Guy
“Kind of a death/grind sound going on… heavy and in your face.” – The Mosh Pit 89.9 FM (Madison, WI)
#1 Loud February 2018 on The National Loud Chart (Cemetery Preston – 2018) (Earshot)
Highlight – #7 on The National Loud Chart – For the Week Ending: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 (Earshot) (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
Highlight – #5 on The National Loud Chart – For the Week Ending: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 (Earshot) (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Spawned from the former bassist of legendary grind band Fuck The Facts, Greber are a deadly sludge-grind two-piece. The band take a no-frills approach to metal, with a dark tone shooting back and forth between down-low grooves and harsh blasts of noise that underground metal fans will instantly latch on to.” – Alt Press (50 rising Canadian bands by province to keep on your radar)
“Greber offer up their latest slab of crushing sludge- and doom-laden grind with their new album, Cemetery Preston. The duo consist of bassist/vocalist Marc Bourgon (ex-Fuck the Facts) and drummer/vocalist Steve Vargas (The Great Sabatini), who create an exceptionally raw and visceral sound with their unique approach.” – Exclaim! (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
““Obliterating” is the word that comes to mind first in reflecting on this massive marauder. The vocals are raw and unhinged; the bass riffs are hard and heavy enough to reduce tall building to tiny piles of smoking gravel; and the tumbling, battering, bone-smashing qualitis of the changing drum rhythms are seriously attention-grabbing. There’s doom and blood-thirsty violence and a healthy dose of head-nodding compulsiveness in this genre-bending song, and I’m now slobbering to hear more from Greber.” – No Clean Singing (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Greber’s pursuit of intricate heavy music pays off immensely. “Cemetery Preston” will be one of the most unique and layered experiences of this year.” – The Sludgelord (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
““Backhanded Interest” for your aural perusal. It’s a no-face-unpunched collision of pressure cooked lactic acid low end tone and pounding at the inside of the coffin lid drumming with just enough feedback/noise to break up the gang hanging out in the doughnut shop parking lot.” – Decibel Magazine (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Greber lay down sludgey power violence, noise rock, and doom with authority here on their third full-length. And it’s no surprise this band delivers unique, passionate extremity.” – Bravewords (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Greber has certainly created their own sound with Cemetery Preston. A medley of differing metal styles delivered in bitter fashion. The duo bring an level of intensity that walks a tight line between sludgy riffs, grinding drum beats & wild hardcore style vocals.” – Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Greber have released one hell of a record in the form of Cemetery Preston” – Sputnik Music (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“Cemetery Preston, their third album proper, saves its blast beats for punctuation amid its predominantly prowling tempos, harkening back to the fact that even the genre’s originators didn’t go full tilt on every track” – New Directions in Grindcore – Bandcamp Daily (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“They tick all the required boxes and right from the offset of opener ‘Backhanded Interest’ they go for the knock-out punch. A fist in your face. This unrelenting violence continues for the entire duration of the album, nowhere do they give the listener a chance to breathe. After the last tones of ‘The Closer We Got’ you’ll have been beaten into a pulp.” – Lords of Metal (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
“On Cemetery Preston, Greber have produced some of the heaviest, super-massive black hole music, this side of Unearthly Trance.” – Hellbound (Cemetery Preston – 2018)
==========================================
BAND STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS:
1. Not really OUR story to have but we were 2/3’s of its cast and it was so unspeakably horrible that we have the right to spin the yarn of our Tugnut 2006 Canada/USA tour. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Steve and I’s old band, Tugnut got set to embark upon a 2 and a half month tour across the United States and Canada. It started out as only 2 months and grew into 2 and a half when Steve and I realized that his first show that he had booked in Vancouver (our first show back across the border into Canada) was 2 weeks AFTER our Seattle show. (Steve was booking the Canadian shows and I was booking the US ones) After the discovery was made a frantic last-minute jaunt through the big sky regions of the upper midwest began with little success. We played roughly 42 shows in 72 days. With over HALF of the days of tour being off we defaulted to sitting in whichever mall/McDonalds was the most hospitable and playing Gin Rummy for LITERALLY DAYS. DAYS!!! We ran out of money as we rolled into Vegas and everything went onto my credit card after that. Our van was broken into while we were asleep in Asheville which resulted in yours truly chasing down the thief and getting our merch bags back. Sleeping in Walmart parking lots and watching our sanity drip out our ears the onslaught of hardships were endless. I don’t think any of us would have traded that experience for anything.
2. So we played Plan B in Moncton one night and were graciously put up by a fellow rock and roller. He left his apartment to our care and said “There’s some weed over there if you guys want”. Marc pulled out his high school skills and rolled a phat joint for us to blaze. We got smonked, found an N64 and anticipated a sick night of Goldeneye. Who knows how long we tried to set it up (could have been 5 minutes, could have been 45 minutes) before deciding to watch TV. I think it was Lethal Weapon on TV but again who knows how long it took before we realized we weren’t hearing voices in our heads and that it was an assisted audio program. It was very good weed. The End.
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Album Title: Fright Without
Release Date: September 9, 2022
Labels:
VINYL, CD, Cassette – CANADA – Ancient Temple / Nofuneral
VINYL – USA – Hibernation Release
VINYL – EUROPE – 7 Degrees / Fresh Outbreak
Track Listing:
1. FORM (2:21)
2. AGING DEBT (2:22)
3. FABRICATED PURPOSE (3:43)
4. INTO SILENCE (2:59)
5. BUSH CORD OF ENTRAILS (1:56)
6. LARKINITIS (3:25)
7. DARK CORNERS (2:34)
8. RATS OF SUBVERSION (4:52)
9. NOSEBLEED (3:05)
10. TREE CARVING (1:33)
Album Length: 28:55
Album / Single Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Steve Vargas and Marc Bourgon
• All songs written by: Greber
• Recorded by: Sean Pearson at Boxcar Studios in Hamilton, Ontario
• Mixed by: Kurt Ballou at Godcity in Salem, Massachusetts
• Mastered by: Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon
• Album Artwork by: Main Artwork by Marcos Guinoza / Text and Layout by Youth and Rust
• Member of SOCAN
• Canadian Content (MAPL)
Album Band Line Up:
Steve Vargas – Drums, Vocals
Marc Bourgon – Bass, Vocals
Kevin Keegan – Vocals and Lyrics on Fabricated Purpose
Scott Miller – Vocals and Noise on Bitchin’ Shades
Mathieu Vilandre – Guitar on Larkinitis
Kàrhozat – Noise on Dark Corners
Sean Pearson – Noise on Fistful of Cancon Dollars
Live Band Line Up:
Steve Vargas – Drums, Vocals, Lights
Marc Bourgon – Bass, Vocals
Photo by Austin Gibson
Editing by Youth and Rust
Left to Right – Steve Vargas – Drums and Vocals, Marc Bourgon – Bass and Vocals
Henry Miller wrote one of the great truths of life when he said “All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.”
Such a quote could describe bass-and-drums duo Greber, save that with past and present members of Fuck the Facts and The Great Sabatini, they have a great wealth of experience to bring to the table. Inspired by the truly great bands like Neurosis and Propaghandi, but inspired not to slavishly imitate what they have already created, but to forge their own sound, to blaze new trails. To look out at the world that surrounds us and reflect what they see truthfully; as though holding up a mirror to the darkness in the hope of reflecting a glimmer of light.
They truly have gazed into the abyss and put to music what they see there; their music has huge depths and they have none of the limitations that plague so many bands. They truly are their own beast and they truly have their own sound.
Since forming in 2008, Greber has released three well-received full-length albums, four 7″ inch split singles, a split cassette with Minors, and a 4-way split LP with Cell Press, Anthesis, and Botfly along with countless shows across Eastern Canada.
As if they were morphing into a single entity, Drummer Steve Vargas and bassist/vocalist Marc Bourgon have made Greber into their own unique entity, something as important to the duo as food and air.
Now in 2022, Greber will release their new album ‘Fright Without’, with a collaboration between Ancient Temple / Nofuneral (Canada) (Vinyl, CD, Cassette), Hibernation Release (USA) (Vinyl), 7 Degrees / Fresh Outbreak (Europe) (Vinyl) with digital download directly from the band.
“For this record, I (Marc), would get some ideas into a skeletal structure via some computer demos and then send them off to Steve to hash out some general ideas. From there we just ran the Christ out of them in our jam space and they morphed accordingly. I still get amped on hearing how Steve perceives the stuff I bring to the table. It’s never the way I hear it in my head and I couldn’t be happier with the way that we’ve evolved together over the years. It’s easy to take it for granted, but it’s something that I wholeheartedly cherish and love the dude to no end.
A big difference between Fright Without and our last record, Cemetery Preston, was that there were a lot fewer revisions. I could all too easily drive myself insane with the “make-song-better” process and I found that over time it was way too much stress and I couldn’t cope with doing it at that level anymore. Maybe if there were some clear-cut and qualitative progress made visible by the madness I would have had a harder time with the divorce but I love what we did with this record and am glad we switched up our approach.
Fright Without is a handleless staircase that disorients as much as it overwhelms. Our testament to suffering and hope, balance and woe, heaven and here. With Kurt Ballou lending his abilities to the mix we’re beyond happy with how the final product came to sound and we hope that the listener finds it to be as much of an escape as they do a confrontation.” – GREBER
“Fright Without” is due out September 9, 2022.
(bio written by Steve Earles)
Greber is:
Steve Vargas – Drums, Vocals, Lights
Marc Bourgon – Bass, Vocals
Album Band Line Up:
Steve Vargas – Drums, Vocals
Marc Bourgon – Bass, Vocals
Kevin Keegan – Vocals and Lyrics on Fabricated Purpose
Scott Miller – Vocals and Noise on Bitchin’ Shades
Mathieu Vilandre – Guitar on Larkinitis
Kàrhozat – Noise on Dark Corners
Sean Pearson – Noise on Fistful of Cancon Dollars
Shared The Stage With:
Yautja, Wake, The Great Sabatini, Alaskan, Homewrecker, Malevich, Meek is Murder, Enabler
Endorsements:
Steve Vargas (drums, vocals) endorsed by Los Cabos Drumsticks
Marc Bourgon (bass, vocals) endorsed by Egan Bass Guitars
Discography:
2010 – Hometown Heroin – LP
2012 – Split 7” with Proletar
2013 – Split 7” with Hiroshima Vacation
2014 – Kiln Hardened Psalms – LP
2016 – Split 7” with Anthesis
2018 – Cemetery Preston – LP
2018 – Split 7” with The Mighty Megalodon
2019 – Split Cassette with Minors
2021 – 4-way split LP with Cell Press, Anthesis and Botfly
2022 – Fright Without – LP
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