Rallying done wrong - the problems of Grandson's INERTIA

Album cover for 'INERTIA'.

In production since 2018 and released in September 2025, alt-rock artist Grandson released his newest album, INERTIA. In the follow up to its release, this already political artist became more vocal about his beliefs, leading to the creation of this album. It bleeds and oozes statements over pure heavy rock tracks, using a lot less electronic elements than ever compared to his previous releases. The lack of his classic sound is passable, but it really was his hyper focus on blurting out politics over and over which left a sour taste in my mouth.

Grandson raps over shredding electric guitars and heavy drumming and not much else, which is typical for the genre. The instrumental content of this album was just okay for me, but some of the melodies he brings to the table are quite catchy. For example, ‘AUTONOMOUS DELIVERY ROBOT’ has him chanting the song title before a fun chorus breakdown, with good drum work and a repeated sequence of electric guitar. I found myself drawn to the high energy he brings, making the instrumentals fun to listen to while exercising or doing physical work. All of the choruses are at least okay, with the production and tuning being well-done.

With that being said, the instrumentals are not at all the focus of the album- instead it’s the lyrical content. The opening track ‘BURY YOU’ is quite innocuous in this sense, setting clear the sound you will come to expect, but not the lyrics. In this, he makes a statement about the bystander effect and assault, but it’s a lot less on the nose than the rest of the album. Grandson makes his opinions abundantly clear back-to-back to back, constantly jumping subject; giving you very little time to think or digest the previous verse’s content before the next one. An example of this is ‘YOU MADE ME THIS WAY’, where he talks about pro-life sentiments, then immediately into school shootings, then the start of the next track ‘LITTLE WHITE LIES’ starting with: “JESUS WAS A 5’4 BROWN SKIN SOCIALIST, NOTHIN' LIKE THE WHITE MAN ON THE CRUCIFIX”. Grandson is so focused on politics, but dances subjects so much he is never able to really talk about any of in depth outside of bold statements. I found it annoying towards the end- it souding more like whining and shouting than anything substantial.

A track I particularly wanted to mention is ‘SELF IMMOLATION’. This song brings up the death of Aaron Bushnell, a man who committed suicide by self-immolation outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in February 2024 as an extreme form of protest towards the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Grandson frames this song very brazenly, with the chorus being him saying “Self-immolation!” before a guitar breakdown, where he adds “Gas, Matchstick”- and in the final chorus “His skin, it peels like plastic.” I understand music being used for political purposes, and it should, but when its relating to recent and ongoing real-world events there’s a level of sensitivity that really should be had in my opinion. He talks about his burning body and ashes with such intensity that it takes away from any semblance of a message. A comparison can be drawn with Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled album, with Grandson taking clear inspiration from them. Similarly, they tackle heavy topics, famously showing a political self-immolation in the album cover- but an album cover is something you can pass by. The band uses it very well though, displaying his sacrifice as a way to be angry at the rest of the world. Although Grandson acknowledges Aaron’s sacrifice and talks about it in a positive light, framing him as a martyr alongside the graphic which is being painted, the format of a song compared to an album cover is a different level. You can’t dance or mosh to an album cover. Re-listening to the album, I skip this song as it affects the rest of it for me.

As a whole, I found this album has its lyrical issues, but the heavy rock aspects brought energy which i enjoyed. It is not an album I returned to much sadly outside of ‘AUTONOMOUS DELIVERY ROBOT’,  as I found that track funny, and it was focused on a dystopian, yet modern, item. If you want a concise, half-hour album of a man shouting in anger at the world, I recommend INERTIA. I would also recommend if youre looking for a high energy, simply formatted and catchy time. But for me, it didn’t leave me with much to think about afterwards as he was telling me what to think, thus was altogether forgettable.

★★.5