Mr. Grey is a 42 year old MC from Gilroy, California who came up as 1/2 of the duo Gorilla Voltage alongside ClockworC. However, he would drop his first 2 solo efforts Lost Soul in the fall of 2012 & then Remain Raw a couple summers later prior followed by The Damn Dirty Apes the year after Remain Raw. Gorilla Voltage then signed to Majik Ninja Entertainment on Christmas Day 2016 & manage to dropped 2 more full-lengths together, but quietly disbanded following their final album Gods & Claws which is a bit of a shame considering that I consider it to be their best work musically. That being said, Grey dropped his 3rd album Vicious Vendetta a little bit after the pandemic started & celebrated last year’s Valentine’s Day to go fully acoustic rock on the Righteous Devil mixtape. Few months later, he formed the trio Cabal with Philly horrorcore pioneer Lo Key alongside Louisville veteran Bukshot released their debut The Watchers to widespread acclaim within the underground. Considering that, it was only right for Buk to sign Grey to Mobstyle Music for his debut EP fully produced by Seven.
After the titular intro, the opener “Into the Wasteland” sets off the EP with an occult instrumental talking about being born for this just before Gorilla Voltage reunite for the somewhat industrial “Outrage da Jour” asking why people are mad at them. “Justice?” works in a creepy ass beat to call out the system leading into “American Meat Grinder” embracing a trap metal sound talking about fiending for blood.
“The Day the Angels Day” frantically confesses all he sees now is the darkness that came from the fog while the penultimate song “Zerk!” finds Boondox joining The Berzerkers for an uncanny prelude to their debut EP. And prior to the “Codicil” outro, “Winter Soldier” truly ends the EP with some strings & hi-hats declaring himself as such.
Compared to his earlier work, Operation: Delirium is easily the best solo effort that Grey has put out yet in my opinion. The apocalyptic concept is well conceived & Seven’s production is dark, yet comes through with a range of interesting ideas from trap metal to industrial hip hop. He’s a great addition to Mobstyle in my opinion & have high expectations for the Berzerkers EP.
Score: 9/10