Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday

Artist: Grails
Album: Doomsdayer's Holiday
Label: Temporary Residence
Year: 2008








Tracklist:
01. Doomsdayer's Holiday
02. Reincarnation Blues
03. The Natural Man
04. Immediate Mate
05. Predestination Blues
06. X-Contaminators
07. Acid Rain

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Touted as Grails' darkest and heaviest album to date, Doomsdayer's Holiday begins with a slow fade-in of banshee-like howl before a wall of drums clatters in. The guitars instantly arrange themselves into a formation reminiscent of a classic, slow riffing Earth record (in fact Randall Dunn is on hand as an engineer), harmonising in a variety of classic sludge metal patterns up until the more exploratory 'Reincarnation Blues' fires up, taking on a more diverse range of instruments for a psychedelic and deeply atmospheric slice of retro fuzz-rock. Once again the riffing is pretty darn majestic. Things get more peculiar still by the time we arrive at 'The Natural Man', which employs a creepy dulcimer line to evoke '70s soundtrack vibes, a theme continued by the smooth, bluesy basslines of 'Immediate' before it all spills into an orgy of free drumming and spluttering noise. Showing up for vocal duties on 'Predestination Blues' is Sun City Girl Alan Bishop, who adds to the atmosphere of droning, modal prog without making too deep an impact on the instrumental backbone of the piece. The final two tracks 'X-Contaminations' and 'Acid Rain' stray yet further from the world of metal - especially the latter, which confusingly borders on lounge-bound easy listening jazz for the most part. If this song were a pair of trousers they'd be made from brown corduroy. A confusing endpoint that only exacerbates the web of psychedelic intrigue surrounding the album. Recommended. (boomkat.com)

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