With the end of 2012 quickly approaching and Grayceon‘s critically-acclaimed last album All We Destroy (Profound Lore) waning in the rear-view, the San Francisco-based triad prepares for the next chapter in their story: a 30-minute album comprised of two sprawling epics that bend the concentration closer toward the band’s rockier roots. Titled Pearl and the End of Days, these two new songs still offer up the signature Grayceon ‘rock’ sound, but with a greater emphasis on wrapping the entire amalgamation in a polished elegance. Cellist Jackie Perez Gratz commented, „We wrote these songs over the course of the past two years, on the tails of the release of our third full-length, All We Destroy, and a time during which I was pregnant for nine months and my daughter was born. All three of us went into a collective hibernation where we weren’t playing out much and didn’t have any big album plans.” She continued, “Lack of specific goals and immediate expectations gave us the freedom to penetrate a newfound energy in our music. These two new songs, ‘Pearl’ and ‘The End of Days’, are the expression of that energy: more rock based, overall faster tempos, and a lighter heart lyrically. The EP embodies Grayceon’s musical style and challenges, but the songs, while taking on a different mood than previous material, still allow plenty of opportunity for head banging.”
Over the course of seven years and three proper full-lengths, Grayceon, comprised of one guitar (Max Doyle), one cello (Jackie Perez Gratz, who, along with her cello, has appeared on albums from bands like Om, Agalloch, Cattle Decapitation, Giant Squid, Amber Asylum and more), and one set of drums (Zack Farwell) has managed to tackle the full spectrum of heavy music’s extensive clutch of emotions. Pummeling sludgy metal quickly carves into fiery post-punk that’s knotted within epic experimental rock, and it’s all blanketed with the additional allure of ample use of mellow stretches to fully round out the pattern. Words such as „enterprising,” „unconventional” and „dynamic” have all been utilized in an attempt to encapsulate the band’s overall design, but the absolute consensus remains: Grayceon thrives as a splendid anomaly amongst an ever-increasing sea of peers.
Pearl and The End of Days was recorded in the Bay Area with Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden Studios in August of 2012 and will be released by SF-based Flenser Records in early 2013 on digital and vinyl formats.
More information coming soon.