High among the myriad pleasures offered at this year’s Roadburn festival in the Netherlands was the chance to see Twentynine Palms, California’s Atala play not one, but two sets (reviews here and here), both of them rife with new material from their forthcoming Labyrinth of Ashmedai album on Salt of the Earth Records. And among the new songs aired — cuts like “Death’s Dark Tomb” and “Infernal” — a decided standout was the raw thrust of “Grains of Sand,” for which the three-piece now present a corresponding video that also marks the reveal of the studio version of the song, which stands among their most aggressive and lumbering works to date.

Between their 2015 self-titled debut (review here) and its 2016 follow-up, Shaman’s Path of the Serpent (review here), the three-piece showed considerable sonic progression, and Labyrinth of Ashmedai would seem to hold that line. Produced once again by Billy Anderson, the third Atala long-player comes across as more sure of its direction and more confident in its approach than anything the band has done before, giving the impression that they’ve found the path they want to walk and are setting about leaving considerable footprints behind them as they go.

I’ll hope to have more on it as we get closer to the release — I’m still not sure of the exact date, but it can’t be too far off at this point — but you can check out the clip for “Grains of Sand” below, which gives the track a rehearsal-room showcase and recalls glory-days Crowbar videos in some of guitarist/vocalist Kyle Stratton‘s clawing at his own face and copious beardage. Good fun all the way around.

Enjoy:

Atala, “Grains of Sand” official video

Grains of Sand off the soon to be released Atala album. “Labyrinth of Ashmedai ” coming soon on Salt Of the Earth Records.

Filmed: Brooke Valls
Edited: Think Infinite Productions

ATALA is:
Kyle Stratton (Guitar and Vocals)
Jeff Tedtaotao (Drums)
John Chavarria (Bass)

Atala on Thee Facebooks

Atala on Bandcamp

Atala website

Salt of the Earth Records on Thee Facebooks

Salt of the Earth Records website

Tags: Atala, Atala Labyrinth of Ashmedai, California, Grains of Sand, Labyrinth of Ashmedai, Salt of the Earth Records, Twentynine Palms

This entry was posted on Friday, June 30th, 2017 at 10:09 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.