5 out of 5

Label: Temporary Residence

Producer: Grails

And they’ll for sure say Red Sparowes, or Isis, or possibly even Pelican, since the kids like them and they’re mostly instrumental metal too and y’know they’re all the same… and there are elements of Dirty Three, or Radian, but really, Grails is a band to which to compare others.  They stand on their own, they planted and nurtured their own seeds to maturity – and are still growing – and while “they sorta sound like”s will always exist for every band forever, ‘Burning Off Impurities’ is truly a unique and powerful listen, both from the band’s catalogue and the genre in general.

There’s not a spare moment on this disc.  Everything grows into the next, and each song builds on before – or properly breaks away from it, as in the short beat-heavy ‘More Extinction’ splitting slow-burn opener ‘Soft Temple’ from its sister-in-dynamics ‘Silk Rd.’  As the Allmusic review points out, what’s rewarding here is how the elements enter the fray and depart without notice, and yet make a massive impact to the song.  There’s no breath before an explosion, or pitter patters leading to a smash of percussion or guitars – just suddenly there is noise, or light, and then suddenly it’s gone; powerful, felt, but not at all disruptive.  This seems to be the type of natural flow Red Sparowes aims for.  But that band, to me, is a collection of themes that occasionally come together in a magic moment of song.  Otherwise they sound like their disparate players and parts, compared to Grails who are an entity.  I don’t care that I see a band picture of four dudes, Grails is Grails, not a guitar player, a bass player, etc.  And perhaps, truly, the ability to sound so organic comes from an imposed rotating instrument concept from the get-go, everyone trying everything.  It would follow that this would give all insight into strengths and weaknesses of which music-makin’ tool and thus how best to plug it in to the current mix.

Elsewhere on the disc, the band slowly sheds the Celtic influence of tracks 1 and 3 (which I suppose could be seen as echoing their earlier output, when that was a major factor of their sound) and moves toward a rockier sound, culminating in the epic Origin-Ing, which, again, suddenly pulses with a sudden emotion that could be said to come out of nowhere but is executed as though always there.

I didn’t catch this disc at first.  It’s definitely a headphone listen.  But once I plugged in, I was hooked.  Instrumental bands almost always have a showy element; Grails is the rarity that pares it back to creating an emotion or emotions, the music servicing that as opposed to structuring things around a wicked solo or drum fill.  Which, going back to ‘sounds like,’ makes them a harder rock version of classic, ‘Horse Stories’-era Dirty Three.  And who doesn’t wish for more of Dirty Three?  And how does this fly against my statement that the band shouldn’t be compared to other bands?  Is this maybe just a weak attempt at concluding the review?

…Penises?