After several months of rather sporadic activity, local duo GreyMarket has initiated a more permanent return with the completion of a brand new record. Over a dozen tracks, The Stress Kills affirms GreyMarket is still capable of crafting lush, instrumentally bombastic electro rock with a mere two members.
The duo’s first new outing in more than four years blends sweeping cinemascopic instrumentals with more urgent synth-grooving rock and sci-fi experimentalism, Cave McCoy’s muscular operatic vocals soaring to falsetto heights as he unleashes pedal-effected guitar passages to the steady pounding and pulsing rhythms of Michael Gargiulo, both men executing laptop-powered embellishments (strings, synths and bass) to flesh out their songwriting.
Lyrically, The Stress Kills explores themes touching on life’s day-to-day trivialities (“Minutiae”), self-doubt (“Don’t Let It In”), metal illness (“Lunacy”), and love in all its various incarnations — passion that feels so overwhelming it’s almost like a sickness (“Malady”), the post-honeymoon period of working past your differences (“Reality”), the resigned bitterness at a relationship’s end (“Almost an Always”) — and employs space-faring imagery along the way; “If I go lightspeed to oblivion / Could I arrange a new decision?” McCave howls in “Reality,” while dramatic set-closer “Consider Phlebas” references Iain M. Banks’ 1987 war-torn space opera of the same name. For those unfamiliar with GreyMarket, The Stress Kills provides a rather thrilling introduction. For the ones already in the know, it’s a long-awaited much-anticipated return to fine form.
Critics' Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
This article appears in May 5-11, 2016.