Sometimes it seems like a miracle when talents spring up like mushrooms after being locked in a dark, dimly lit basement for years. One good example is German singer and songwriter Florian Grey. Originally from outside of Frankfurt, Grey relocated to Berlin to surround himself with new fellow campaigners and business partners in order to write songs and push his solo career even farther. He managed to sing in some local bands where he supported the likes of Lacrimas Profundere, Tarja Turunen, and Doro Pesch, among others. Obviously the relocation worked out and was profitable, as his debut album Gone will be released on May 29th through the German label Echozone, distributed via Soulfood Music. In support of the upcoming release, Florian Grey had the chance to introduce the material to a bigger audience in an acoustic garb, supporting the German chart-breakers Lord of the Lost on their classical orchestra tour.
With that said, Mr. Grey blares out a self-composed album, and many musicians will be envious for not having written these songs first. The ten tracks and two with music accompanied by poems are far away from the Grey mean. In a genre which is often chock-full of stereotypes, Grey is moving from Dark Rock tunes to cross borders from Rock into Pop with some classic elements thrown in for good measure. Impressively produced and re-staged by Chris Harms in Chameleon Studios Hamburg, the Lord of the Lost frontman also chipped in with additional guitars, cellos, and arrangements that helped give Gone its emotional and compelling depth. Although, Florian Grey brachiates from song to song and one highlight to another, overall, he draws a picture when taken together as a whole. The general mood on Gone is remotely comparable to Geoff Tate’s first solo album. Grey’s voice moves in a range between Tate, Ville Valo, or End of Green’s Michelle Darkness, but with even more panache for the real big hook lines.
“Laudanum“ turns from a piano ballad to a real Pop hit, which could not be better performed by a darker Adam Lambert. The chorus of “Strange Ways“ is close to those aforementioned Tate compositions, while “A Black Symphony“ convinces with a rocking chorus and killer hook lines. The secret of Gone seems to be that the songs stand in the foreground, carried by the overall dominating, fragile, yet powerful voice of Mr. Grey. That the compositions range exclusively between heartbreaking ballads like “The Way I die“ or “The End“ – which turns out to be a rocker towards the end – and mid-tempo songs like the album opening “My Fear“ and the above mentioned are very becoming in the mix with modern electronic sounds along with programming and give Gone a very unique note in the old story of Gothic Rock. With “Nocturne in Es“ Mr. Grey dabbles in EBM soundscapes, which works out perfectly and shows another dark face of the album.
Gone sounds like something that would be done by the originators of the genre, and not by a relative newcomer like Florian Grey, who has yet to sup with the devil to reap the yield of his work. One of the strongest debut albums in a long time sounds fresh and melancholic, life-affirming and yet down in a blue funk all at once. CrypticRock gives Gone 5 out of 5 stars.
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