Shades of Grey - House of Fools

Thrashback Records, if you haven't noticed by now, is engaged in an onslaught of never-before available releases of old and truly obscure Thrash and Thrash-associated metal. Shades of Grey is another of those bands. With this release of their 1989 demo, House of Fools, this outlier to the Chicago scene from Indiana that may appear on old fliers with Anacrusis, Zoetrope, and Funeral Nation gets some renewed attention. Otherwise, interest to Shades of Grey is likely the involvement of members in other bands. Bassist Peter Clemens is involved with long-running death metal project, Invasion, Death Thrash entity Sea of Tranquility, and the mentioned Yellowtooth which appeared on the Book of Armageddon compilation LP. Drummer Dave Hornyak did a short stint in Cathedral at one point and is currently involved with Speedfreak, doing a sort of Pantera / Down thing. Larry Roberts, who would join for 1991's Under The Skeptic's Eye can be found as a long time resident of Novembers Doom. 

While the tracks here aren't shoddy, it's not hard to see why the band did not get much of a foothold. Fairly standard Thrash is on display with average riffs, average energy, and psuedo-political and social oriented lyrics. Its a chug-heavy affair, mostly, with "Under The Skeptic's Eye", which opens with an intro similar to Voivod's "Nuclear War" and ends on a an interesting rhythmic-punctuated riff with Peter Clemens' underneath accentuating the rhythm with rubbery bass highlights. Sometimes the band made bad decisions in arrangement, such as during "Rage of Insanity", where Shades of Grey jam an acoustic section in the middle of the track that punctures the track like a galvanized spike into it's energy reserves. Other than "Under The Skeptic's Eye" I am also partial to "Pizza Face", the release's laugh track, which is like Legion of Death's "Sewer Rat", but not quite as good. The band had written the song off according to a 1990 interview in Trechoma Zine, but the song helps break up the rest of their mid-brow material. 

As always, Thrashback does an incredible job with the layout and product overall. My copy of the LP comes with an authenticity letter, insert with lyrics and live photos, and show flyer from the band's active period featuring Realm, Carnage, and Neurotoxin. All things considered, I could see those really interested in the late 80's early 90's Chicago thrash scene wanting a copy of this. For me, the lackluster riffs and energy coupled with stereotypical pedestrian lyrics lose my interest. For Shades of Grey, when it comes to their musical output, I think Power Packer Zine summed the band up perfectly when editor Cameron Gillespie ended the review by simply writing AVERAGE in big ole capital letters.