Album Review: Grenadiers - 'Songs The Devil Taught Us'

Along with Paper Arms and Stolen Youth, Grenadiers are one of the most exciting acts in the Adelaide punk scene right now. After turning heads off the back of their demo, the band entered the studio and recorded their debut album “Songs The Devil Taught Us”. The end result being one of the most energetic and captivating Australian rock releases I have heard in recent times.

Drawing heavy influence from the likes of The Bronx, Queens Of The Stone Age and Hot Snakes, the album is the product of some truly great songwriters. The album’s opening track “Abandon Ship” sets the standard for the rest of the album to come, introducing the listener to band’s formula of crunching guitars, driven drums and front man Jesse Coulter’s passionate vocal delivery. The frantic, energetic “No One Listens” highlights the band’s ability to write a quality riff, backed up by an anthemic chorus.

The opening riff in “Leave It In Your Pocket” sounds like something you could hear from one of the bigger rock bands in Australia, but the song turns out to be much more interesting and brilliant than just that one riff. The Triple J favourite “Old Uncle Scratch” shows Coulter heading into a more aggressive vocal delivery, often at times opting to scream the vocals apposed to his singing, which is one of the band’s strong points. The soft melodic break towards the end of the song is sure to incite a memorable sing-a-long during the band’s praised live performances.

“Good Advice” offers one of the best lyrical lines in “You gotta walk that line, like Johnny fucking Cash was saying back in 59”. That line and all of the other lyrics on the album shows that Coulter puts more thought into his lyrics to avoid releasing some of the generic garbage his competitors put forward.

If you need any more convincing to go out and buy this album, look no further than the albums final three tracks in “A Song The Devil Taught Me”, “A Fine Way To Exit”, and “Bad Hand”. Those three songs are prime examples of what the band has to offer. If these three songs don’t get you on board, you either have something wrong with your ears, or you’re just an idiot. Whichever one you want to claim is up to you.

Oh, and the band has great beards.

With Triple J already heavily backing the band, “Songs The Devil Taught Us” should launch the band into being one of the real forces to be reckoned within the Australian live music scene.

1. Abandon Ship

2. No One Listens

3. Leave It In Your Pocket

4. Nothing To Say

5. Fireboy

6. Old Uncle Scratch

7. Good Advice

8. A Song The Devil Taught Me

9. A Fine Way To Exit

10. Bad Hand