Grails announce European tour dates for May

American mystics Grails have just announced a European tour including stops in the UK!

In support of Grails’ critically-acclaimed new record, Chalice Hymnal, the trans-continental band will tour Europe. This time around the tour includes a long-awaited return to Scandinavia and Greece as well as the band’s first-ever stops in Poland and the Baltics. This is also the first European tour with new members AE Paterra (Zombi, Majeure) and Ilyas Ahmed (Grouper).

Rather than pick up where they left off, Grails take the sky-high riff-based heaviness of their earlier albums and distill it into a nuanced, widescreen opus. The perennial influences of mid-20th century Western film scores, obscure library music, and psychedelic krautrock are indelibly imprinted, but Chalice Hymnal exudes an eerie patience in unfurling the many layers of its subtle details. Produced by the band over the past five years, Chalice Hymnal bears some of the European psych and experimental hip-hop production techniques of founding members Alex Hall and Emil Amos’ other group, Lilacs & Champagne. Amos’ meditative metal band, Om, and longtime singer-songwriter project, Holy Sons, also naturally find their way into the Chalice cauldron. Rounding out their line-up, cofounder Zak Riles (also of experimental kraut-psych trio, Watter) layers synths and programming into an electronic-prog hybrid that pushes Grails further into the deep end, displaying a profound resonance, both musically and emotionally. No one else sounds like Grails, and on Chalice Hymnal they sound more like themselves than ever before.

Stream the title track from Grails’ last album Chalice Hymnal, below –

See full Grails dates below: 

03.05 GR Athens @ Kyttaro Live Club *
04.05 TR Istanbul @ Zorlu Psm – Studio *
07.05 UK Brighton @ The Haunt *
08.05 UK Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club *
09.05 UK London @ Bush Hall, w/ Grumbling Fur *
11.05 BE Zottegem @ Dunk festival
12.05 DE Dortmund @ FZW *
13.05 DE Berlin @ Musik & Frieden *
14.05 PL Wroclaw @ Firlej *
15.05 PL Warsaw @ Hydrozagadka *
16.05 LT Vilnius @ Kablys Club *
17.05 LV Durbe @ Community Hall
18.05 EE Tallinn @ Sveta Baar *
19.05 FIN Helsinki @ Kuudes Linja
21.05 SE Stockholm @ Slaktkyrkan *
22.05 NO Oslo @ Bla, w/ Jex Thoth
23.05 SE Gothenburg @ Truckstop Alaska *
25.05 DK Aarhus @ Atlas *
26.05 DK Copenhagen @ Loppen