GNÔ: Stereofish (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Thanks to the will of three musicians, Gnô survived the departure of the charismatic Christophe Godin. For his first album, Djul charmed the listener with his sense of riff and his musicality, making "Sick Princess" a success in the continuity of Gnô's work while bringing his personal touch. Four years later, Gnô Mark II has just released his second album "Stereofish".

Recorded at the end of 2019 in Peter Gabriel's English studio Real World, "Stereofish" was mixed during the spring confinement. The Frenchmen were thus able to offer themselves some creative escapades in a reclusive daily life with this "Stereofish" marked, at least on a large part, by lightness and moderation. Gnô's recipe until "Sick Princess" is a mix of metal instrumental architectures and pop vocal melodies with tonalities going from darkness to cheerfulness. "Stereofish" shows a Gnô more rock than metal while keeping its pop approach.

This tendency is found in a lot of immediate songs in their construction and accessible by their melodies. 'Calvary Way', 'Never Give Up' and 'Stereofish' clearly have a federative side that communicates a healthy energy and lyrics that we hum from the first listen. This time The fusion component with its catchy groove is less radical but nevertheless part of Gnô's DNA. It evokes Audioslave ('Too Many Faces', 'Our Worlds Collide') notably with the guitar effects, some of Nuno Bettencourt's work outside of Extreme ('Heroshima') and even King's X through the beautiful chorus harmonies in the choruses ('Heroshima' and 'Counting Spiders').

But Gnô hides another face that he reveals in the entrails of 'Stereofish'. In these depths the raw sounds and the rough riffs provoke a heaviness typical of the grunge ('Let It All Go', 'Into The Void') or even of the alternative music ('Animals' or the musician 'Slumdog'). At the same time the instrumentation gets stronger with superb arpeggios in the reptilian 'Smile', more extended instrumental passages ('Smile' or the beautiful tribute to Satch in 'Gnô's New Orbit') or keyboard arrangements for 'Gnô's New Orbit' which contrast with the direct and instinctive start of the record.

If Gnô has always been the archetype of the metal trio, it is certainly in 'Stereofish' that the group dimension is the most obvious. This smoothing out of individualities finds its translation in a music with polished asperities, more consensual and accessible but also more diversified. Of course, Gnô Mark II is less sharp but it remains as brilliant as ever to find the melody that hits the nail on the head and to take the listener into the meanders of its exuberant and generous rock. - Official website

GNÔ

STEREOFISH

AUTRE LABEL

ROCK