DOOMSDAYER'S HOLIDAY

The second album by American psychedelic instrumental rock (say that five times fast) band Grails this year. Take Refuge in clean Living was a much more tangible album, with less spacey moments, and less song oriented. This one is either heavy with a much more busy atmosphere i.e. Predestination blues, reincarnation blues, or almost completely ambient i.e. The natural man, and X-contaminators. Still the albums are very similar, this one just hits the extremes a little more.

If you read my review over Take Refuge, you know that that album does not have a lot of action, save one song. Doomsdayers Holiday on the other hand starts spacey, but quickly gets very busy in the first song three minute song, and then follows into one of the more intense songs on the album reincarnation blues. Afterwords the album takes a turn for the spacey side with the next few songs, with the same eastern vibe as their last album, but this time, the feeling is much darker, I feel much less optimism and mystery with this album than on Take Refuge. Doomsdayers Holiday, while very eastern influenced, they use the eastern instrumentation to create eerie soundscapes, and percussion to add to the darkness. Anyways, this gives way to the almost metallic Predestination blues, another busy song, with some excellent guitar action and drumming. The album closes greatly with the subtle, but not subtle X- Contaminators, and the very Pink Floyd like Acid Rain, very ballady and serene,coming in and out of of the barrier between ambient and very chill music.

One thing that really disappointed me with this album is that it didn't wait to climax for one big triumphant song like the title song for Take Refuge. Instead there's a bunch of shorter songs that are heavy, but don't seem nearly as memorable, or it might just be because the riff on take refuge is just so addicting. Another thing you should not is that the electric guitar is much more prominent on this one than their previous, which is a plus if you got a little tired of hearing the harmonic minor scale from the previous album.

Solid album, but I think I like Take Refuge in Clean Living a little bit more for it's consistency, but not by much, and no less deserving of Three stars.