Grayson Manor
Return to the Manor (Single)
What can I say about Grayson Manor? Every now and then a band comes around that completely has my mouth hanging open in utter disbelief and leaving me completely speechless. I hope the band will use that last sentence in their press release before others can see that when I say that, it’s not a good thing. My first question after hearing the debut song “Shake Me” was “Is this for real?” I couldn’t figure out if this was a joke or if this was something serious and to my surprise, I found out that this Atlanta based band is all too serious and for real. “Shake Me” started out musically sounding kind of cool but it was like a rehashed Guns N’ Roses groove with Warrant background vocals and that tool from Firehouse singing.
It’s funny because I am actually a fan of that kind of sleazy, glam hard rock/metal but Grayson Manor just managed to take elements of the absolute worst bands of the genre and combine them in to one really eye rolling, cringe worthy glam band. I mean, “I’m Still Here” sounds like the worst glam ballad of all time, “I Hate Kissing You Goodbye” by Tuff mixed with Warrant’s “I Saw Red.” Again, I feel like these guys just dipped into the worst glam metal bands of all time and just ran with it. Those bands sucked the first time around and combining them all into one band 20 something years later just makes it sound that much more ridiculous. The third song “Bye Bye Love” actually has a pretty great riff going for it but again, those Warrant “gang” vocals and those horrible lyrics just don’t do much to plead their case. Uh oh, the singer just whistled and cat called in the middle of the song.
In all honesty, Grayson Manor really doesn’t suck, they’re just not original and they don’t have any good songs. If these guys would’ve come out 20 something years ago they would’ve had a great home in the cut out bargain bin along with bands like Wildside and Baton Rouge. The players are all really talented dudes but it’s so wasted playing this 5th rate glam metal. If they are looking to break ground and really wow old jaded metal dudes like me, they have a long way to go to even get me to feel the slightest bit impressed. I’m sure these guys are a great, fun live band to see while slamming some PBRs waiting for your favorite bands from back in the day that have 2 original members left in it.
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