Graywave – Rebirth (EP)
Release Date: 24th June 2022
Label: Church Road Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Dream Pop, Ambient, Indie, Shoegaze.
FFO: Emma Ruth Rundle, Softcult, Gleemer.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Birmingham based dream pop artist Graywave is back with her follow up to 2021’s Planetary Shift. This time around, she has expanded her horizons into more beautiful yet melancholy terrains with her sophomore EP, Rebirth.
Graywave has primed herself to join a scene that has been on the rise for years and influences a wide variety of genres. Emo bands have been chasing the shoegaze buzz since Turnover delivered the masterful Peripheral Vision, but this craze isn’t limited to floppy hair and fender guitars. Graywave ushers in shoegaze with a grace and creates luscious soundscapes built upon layering guitars and dramatic vocal passages.
Rebirth is an EP best enjoyed all in one sitting, the songs blend nicely into one another, all while having their own unique identity. Title track Rebirth opens the EP right up as the heavily reverbed guitars create so much space and atmosphere for her long and droning vocal melodies. A trick that is utilised perfectly across the five tracks. While Rebirth inspires an almost nostalgic quality in your ears, the EP’s final track Closer is patiently waiting to sink its broody and menacing hooks into your back.
Across five tracks, Graywave makes you experience an entire spectrum of emotions. Every break where you feel safe and settled, you’re anticipating the dark loneliness that she conjures up to come back (and it does). The influences on this release are so widespread that it would be impossible to pick them all out, yet Graywave has managed to combine these into a sound that is uniquely her, and this is only her second EP. With even more time and experience under her belt, she could be joining the likes of Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle as the leaders of this scene. 
(4 / 5)
