Grayceon

With bands like Pelican and Red Sparowes muddying up the distinctions between metal and post-rock it seems inevitable that more interstitial brands of heavy music pop up. Hailing from San Francisco, Grayceon are a guitar/cello/drums trio that owe as much to Jethro Tull as they do to Neurosis. The guys in the band, Max Doyle and Zack Farwell (both also in Walken), bring a breadth of metal knowledge that crosses the wires between ’70s progressive epics and mid-’80s chuggers by Metallica, et al. The seasoned veteran of the group is Jackie Perez Gratz, also a current member of Giant Squid and Amber Asylum and a contributor to heavy hitting projects by everyone from Today is the Day to Jarboe. Their four-track, 45-minute debut introduces itself with a minimalist structure that gradually goes for Baroque on "Sounds Like Thunder.” This back and forth between pastoral and visceral flows easily making tracks like 20-minute closer "Ride” the perfect soundtrack for D&D skirmishes gone long. The airiness may be a little perturbing for harder fans that thirst for more blast beats per second but those ready for new branches to explore will enter willingly.