Following up last year's Burning Off Impurities and their recent Take Refuge In Clean Living EP, Grails return with their darkest, heaviest record yet. Written and recorded over the last 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 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.