Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday

Grails released Doomsdayer's Holiday in 2008, and it remains the heaviest, darkest album in their catalog. Where Burning Off Impurities drifted, this record lurches, pushing their psychedelic instrumental rock toward doom, stoner riffs and the edge of post-metal.

Emil Amos, Alex Hall, William Slater and Zak Riles built the album over more than a year of sessions, with Randall Dunn engineering and adding analog synthesizer and Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop contributing vocals. The title track opens with a crushing, off-kilter groove, "Reincarnation Blues" and "Predestination Blues" smear raga-like guitar over thick low end, and the closing "Acid Rain" is as menacing as anything the band has recorded. Saz, oud, violin, vibes and flute keep the textures shifting throughout.

At under 40 minutes it is also their most concentrated statement, earning some of the best reviews of their career and a lasting place among fans of heavy psych.

Pressed on black vinyl by Temporary Residence.