Doomsdayer's Holiday

The sixth album by Portland, Oregon’s instrumental band Grails opens with a somewhat unnerving series of screams — thankfully muted — which gives way to circling, sludgy guitars, and sheets of hissing cymbals. Then, riding atop the building mass of sound — which has a cold wind is blowing right through it — a guitar neatly begins repeating a series of notes before fading slowly into the morass. The brilliance and uniqueness of Grails is exemplified by the segue here into “Reincarnation Blues,” which features Middle Eastern-textured strings and finger cymbals, before the drums and guitars take over, pushing aside eastern sounds for a more western feel. Both tracks meld together seamlessly, transporting the listener several times in just eight minutes to completely different aural landscapes, without force. Doomsdayer’s Holiday commands attention, and with only one “epic” track — the spacey, eight-minute “Acid Rain” — it’s not even particularly long. The record leaves you a tad hungry for more, even after the sprawling explorations of “Immediate Mate,” the multi-textured psychedelia of “X Contaminations,” and the lulling beauty of “The Natural Man.” Sublime.