Grist‘s debut album is a tale of Parisian life.
Active since 2009, the band only released its first EP in 2018, followed by a demo in 2020. In 2024, Julien « Nutz » Deyres (vocals, Gorod, Ahasver, ex-Zubrowska), Nicolas (guitar), Antoine « Pakrette » Perron (bass, Fange) and Thomas « Blastum » Hennequin (drums, Ritualization, Merrimack, Dawohl…) announced their signing with Source Atone Records and Dies Irae Productions for the release of Garden Of Aeolvs, their debut album.
Having already seen the combo at work on stage, I knew more or less what to expect: wild, visceral grindcore of the kind offered by such legends of the style as Napalm Death and Rotten Sound. I wasn’t disappointed to find that as soon as Stigmate, the disquieting introduction, is over, we have all this violence at a high tempo under Nutz‘s vociferations, but also touches of Sludge, Black or even Doom, which testify of the band’s diversity. For example, while Easier grabs us by the throat and dutifully bludgeons us with a driving rhythm, I’ve Lost is just the opposite, exposing us to slow, angst-ridden sounds before Sober stomps us again, as another proof of the album’s consistent versatility. Each track has its own distinct identity, but they all have in common the bestiality and abrasive dissonance that tells of the raw reality of Parisian life. Special mention must go to the infernal Wrong Glass, the longest composition, which floods us with saturation over a throbbing tempo, as well as The Deepest Hole, a cover of another Grind powerhouse, the now-defunct Swedish band Nasum, but also to Bret, who closes the album with a… puzzling approach.
Grist and Grind is a true love story, and the four musicians don’t hesitate to spice things up with influences from their different backgrounds. Garden Of Aeolvs promises mosh instead of love, but you’ll learn to love it.
80/100
A few questions for Nicolas, guitarist of the band Grist, on the occasion of the release of their new album Garden Of Aeolvs.
Hello, and thank you for your time! Without using the words “Grind” or “Grindcore”, how would you describe the band Grist?
Nicolas (guitar): Hi, thank you. I’d say we’re a band where everything is relatively permissible, even if blast beats will always be the mainstay of Grist. If we feel the need to integrate a passage or even a Doom, Sludge or even “blackish” compo, we’ll do so without question, and I think this “freedom” comes across quite well on the album.
How do you personally relate the name Grist to the band’s music?
Nicolas: Alcohol and metöl were a good match, so I simply typed whisky into wikipedia (never been good at finding band names, let’s face it…) and came up with this name, Grist, which is a kind of malt and barley flour that’s part of one of the first steps in making whisky. I found the name impactful, short and easy to remember.
Garden Of Aeolvs, your debut album, is about to be released. How do you feel about it? Have you had any feedback on it yet?
Nicolas: We’re happy to finally be able to release it after the delay we’ve had, it’s about time. As for feedback, it’s pretty good so far, and the people who’ve been able to listen to it before the release seem to like it.
How would you sum up Garden Of Aeolvs in three words?
Nicolas: Intense, varied and dark.
The album Garden Of Aeolvs is inspired by Parisian life, and especially its dark side. How did you come up with the idea of focusing on this subject? Why did you choose this name for the album, and what does it mean?
Nicolas: We’re inspired by what we see and what surrounds us. I work a lot at night all over Paris and I live on line 12, which is probably one of the worst lines along with 13, and I’m lucky enough to live between the two. The 12 is heavily squatted by the addicts from the old crack hill that I pass every day on my way to and from work. We’re not here to glorify that either, but I prefer to highlight things we know, see and rub shoulders with every day. As for the name, it was Julien (vocals) who came up with it. It refers, among other things, to the Jardin D’Eole, an old park in the north of Paris which was squatted for a while when the Colline was evacuated, and where the addicts migrated to, only to go elsewhere again, in short, a fine demonstration of the famous perlimpinpin powder of a government incapable of managing anything and which prefers to ostracize and act repressively against a population which, in my opinion, should be considered more as sick than criminal.
This album comes six years after the first EP, and four years after your Preprod 2020 demo. Have you noticed any changes from the band’s previous releases?
Nicolas: Let’s just say that on Garden Of Aeolvs we spread ourselves a little more thinly, whereas City Of Plight had more of a “Swedish” vibe. This one is more heterogeneous, with ambiences ranging from Post Hardcore to Doom via Sludge and even some Electro sounds, which goes back to what I explained in your 1st question. You should also know that a certain number of compositions were written for a previous album we recorded but never released in 2015, partly due to the fact that Gautier, our former singer, left Paris. We salvaged a few of them and reworked them a little for today’s taste, which is why he is credited on the lyrics of certain songs.
How did you decide which tracks to unveil to present the album? Does the order of the tracks have any importance in the tracklist?
Nicolas: The order of the tracks is always very important, and given that we can spread ourselves too thin when we’re writing, we had to juggle skilfully to ensure that the whole thing was coherent, but the exercise wasn’t as perilous as I’d imagined in the end, and it came together quite quickly.
What were your guidelines for the artwork? How did the collaboration with Flamberge Illustrations go?
Nicolas: We asked Flamberge to draw inspiration from a painting I’d seen at an exhibition maybe fifteen years ago now. The painting had made a huge impression on me: “Death Comes to the Banquet Table” by Giovanni Martinelli, a 17th-century Italian Baroque painter. And I thought it might be interesting to draw inspiration from the message of this painting for an album artwork, but in a more contemporary era. Flamberge completely understood where we were going and came up with the design on the 1st try. We were all blown away by the quality of her work and her speed of execution. Many thanks to her.
I know it’s a tough question, but do you have a favorite track on this album? Or the one that seemed the most natural to compose?
Nicolas: I think my favorite track would have to be the outro actually, Bret. This track is close to my heart because it’s about a discussion with one of my best friends who ended his life a little over two years ago now, with some graffiti buddies we followed during a session on the ring road one night. I found this recording that had been made by mistake in my phone, and I wanted to put it on the album. My mate had forgotten to turn off the camera while we were on the ring road, so there’s a whole atmosphere to it that I found very cinematic. I asked A// from Syndicat Électronique, a UG electro veteran, if he’d be interested in making a soundtrack from this recording, and he agreed, and I immediately loved the result. As for the second part of your question, I remember that Priority was one of the tracks I composed the fastest. It’s part of that previous album we never released. I’d just found an HM-2 next door at a ridiculously low price, and that famous “chainsaw” sound gave me the vibes to compose this track straight away, no questions asked.
Garden Of Aeolvs is released on Source Atone Records in France, and Dies Irae Productions internationally. How did the collaboration go?
Nicolas: We’d already worked with DIP on the previous EP, but the label is based in Singapore, so you can imagine that communication isn’t always easy, but we manage, and it’s a lot easier for us now that SAR is in the game.
I’ve already had the chance to see you in action on stage, but how do you personally experience a Grist live show?
Nicolas: Well, it all depends on my mood, which is admittedly rather unstable. I can do the same concert twice: one day I’ll love it, the next day I’ll hate it. But whatever happens, you’ve got to go out there and give it your all, and I’ll never break that rule.
What are Grist‘s next projects? Three of you also have other musical projects. How do you manage your time?
Nicolas: We’re going to try and get around a bit to defend the album. We haven’t played since the Pilori tour last February, and I can’t hide the fact that it’s starting to itch a bit. As for everyone’s availability, it can get complicated pretty quickly. The guys are on the road a lot, we’re all casual workers and to make matters worse, Julien is in Toulouse and Antoine in Rennes. So yes, it’s not always easy to get everyone’s schedules to fit together, but we manage in the end.
Are there any musicians or artists you’d like to collaborate with in the future?
Nicolas: Collaborations are often within the close circle of friends. If I have an idea, I usually know who to ask. But I can’t tell you more about it right now, because I haven’t thought about it at all.
Do you think you’ve improved as a musician with this album?
Nicolas: Technically no, creatively yes, for sure. But I’m thinking of going back to more “old-fashioned” basics for the next one, which we’ve already started composing. We even played a few new songs on the last tour.
What bands do you dream of playing with? I’ll let you imagine your dream show with Grist opening, and three other bands.
Nicolas: Well, I can’t hide the fact that I’ve already had the chance to share the stage with a lot of bands I liked, whether with Grist or others. I have some excellent memories with Bain De Sang and some just as memorable ones when I helped out Karras on a few dates with Blockheads, for example. After that, most of the other bands I listen to are dead, so it’s hard to do a bill with them haha. But a quiet show with friends and the bands I’ve just mentioned is totally fine with me.
Last question: what dish would you compare Grist‘s music to?
Nicolas: A bad late-night crêpe at Châtelet Les Halles?
That was my last question. Thank you for your availability, the final words are yours!
Nicolas: Thank you. I don’t have much to say apart from the fact that I’ve just won a bet because I was supposed to release the “album of maturity”, whatever the context, that’s it, it’s done and now buy your round, B!