Posted on: February 8, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Grails will be making several stops in California next month, with shows in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, LA, and San Diego. Their latest release, Doomsdayer’s Holiday, out last October on Temporary Residence, is their darkest, heaviest record yet. Written and recorded over 18 months, Doomsdayer’s Holiday delivers on the promises made by their previous albums, taking equal pride in smoky psychedelics and mountain-ascending riffs.

With Faust conspirator Steven Wray Lobdell and Earth/Sunn O))) producer Randall Dunn as engineers – not to mention drummer Emil Amos having recently become the new other half of Om – Grails’ avant-metal leanings are evident as always. But Doomsdayer’s Holiday finds their already-broad palette continually expanding with 70s European film noir and cosmic free jazz explorations to compliment the Middle Eastern psychedelic folk-metal the group is already known for. Inviting the legendary Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls to add vocals to the mix for the ominous “Predestination Blues” only adds to its unusual beauty.

Doomsdayer‘s Holiday is the culmination of a wildly prolific three-year streak for Grails. This band that never stops pushing forward has finally made an album that pushes back. Devoted students of the past, they have transcended their genre to become an inspiring influence for future celestial explorers.

“On ‘Doomsdayer’s Holiday’, the haze is even thicker, and the album represents a sort of endpoint to their journey: taking place in utter blackness, it is their most alluring and impenetrable trip yet.” – Pitchfork

“’Doomsdayer’s Holiday’ shows a band pushing the limits of psychedelic post-rock and testing the boundaries of post-metal.” – Alternative Press

GRAILS TOUR DATES
Feb 19 2009 Cafe du Nord – San Francisco, California
Feb 20 2009 Historic Brookdale Lodge – Santa Cruz, California
Feb 21 2009 Spaceland – Los Angeles, California
Feb 22 2009 Casbah – San Diego, California
*All shows with James Blackshaw

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