More than half a decade after releasing 2017’s Chalice Hymnal (review here), Grails have announced they’ll offer Anches En Maat on Sept. 22 through Temporary Residence. The streaming track is the opener “Sad and Illegal,” and band-founder/multi-instrumentalist Emil Amos (also of Om and Holy Sons and so on) and it is lush in its cinematic-sans-cinema arrangement as the new, expanded incarnation of the long-running project would seem to be the most complete band Grails have been in memory. Though what’s a band, what’s complete, what’s expanded, blah blah blah. You know what I mean. For a band that was Amos on his own, it looks like there’s a bunch more people hanging around. That’s all.

Full on Euro tour scheduled to support Anches En Maat and you can see the dates along with the album info below. The track, of course, is at the bottom of the post. Dig in:

GRAILS Return with Anches En Maat, Their First Record in Six Years

PRE-ORDER: ANCHES EN MAAT: https://www.temporaryresidence.com/products/trr353

LISTEN TO “SAD & ILLEGAL”: https://lnk.to/Grails

The ever-evolving Grails are back with their first record in six years. Anches En Maat finds the band at their orchestral peak and further expand their lush universe with new members and new instrumentation.

Grails’ Statement (Emil Amos)

“After a band has existed for 20 years, there are things you’ve always wanted to try on the back burner that you’ve never had the room to approach. We all have a bizarre lust to try and not sound like ourselves at times… which is usually the first and last thing you fail at. But with ‘Sad & Illegal’ maybe Grails got a little closer to getting outside ourselves.

There are emotions represented in film music that just aren’t things one experiences in a normal day. Like the immense suspicion baked into music from a repelling scene in a diamond heist film… the way the hi-hat simmers, the filthy fretless bass and an out of tune piano that skitters around the beat. This is the dimension where Sad & Illegal was born in… out of a sense-memory we never got to experience, but that film music told us was real.”

GRAILS
Anches En Maat
September 22, 2023

Anches En Maat is the first new album from Grails in over a half-decade – following the masterful Chalice Hymnal in 2017 – and their first album recorded with all members in the studio together since Doomsdayer’s Holiday in 2008. With every Grails album released since Doomsdayer’s Holiday being a sprawling double-album endeavor, Anches En Maat was conceived as a return to the comparatively efficient single LP runtime. With that, Grails set out to craft the same sonically dense world that their longer albums showcased, while trading singular indulgences for live collaborative interplay.

The core group of founding members Alex Hall and Emil Amos (Om, Holy Sons) joined Jesse Bates, Ilyas Ahmed, and AE Paterra (Zombi, Majeure) in Atlanta, GA to record Anches En Maat together – a novel event for a band who had become so accustomed to recording separately and then laboring in post-production for months or even years on end. Frequent collaborator, Timba Harris (Secret Chiefs 3, SUNN O)))), provided stirring strings, and a bevy of guests filled out the lush landscape of Anches En Maat.

An improbable blend of melted 1980s softcore and daytime soap opera soundtracks, cosmic minimalism, aching Westerns, melancholy electronic pulses, and massive soul-disco strings, Anches En Maat is one of Grails’ most ambitious albums of their 20+ year career. Through continually refining and maturing their vision as a band, Grails have stumbled upon a reprogramming of their internal logic – and come out the other side with a new defining statement.

Tracklisting:
1. Sad & Illegal
2. Viktor’s Night Map
3. Sisters of Bilitis
4. Pool of Gems
5. Evening Song
6. Black Rain
7. Anches En Maat

TOUR DATES
Oct 4 Stadwerkstatt, Linz, AT
Oct 5 A38, Budapest, HU
Oct 6 Pink Whale, Bratislava, SK
Oct 7 Kabinet Muz, Brno, CZ
Oct 8 Meet Factory, Prague, CZ
Oct 9 Arena, Vienna, AT
Oct 11 Roadrunners Rock & Motor Club, Berlin, DE
Oct 12 BHF Langendreer, Bochum, DE
Oct 13 Botanique, Brussels, BE
Oct 14 Vera, Groningen, NL
Oct 15 Hafenklang, Hamburg, DE
Oct 16 Vega / Ideal Bar, Copenhagen, DK
Oct 18 Kuudes Linja, Helsinki, FI
Oct 19 Paavli Kultuurivabrik, Tallinn EE
Oct 20 Zemlika Festival, Durbe LV
Oct 21 Sodas2123 Vilnius, LT
Oct 22 VooDoo Warsaw PL

TICKETS: https://tix.to/GrailsTour

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https://www.instagram.com/grails_band/
https://grails.bandcamp.com/

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https://www.instagram.com/tempresltd/
https://www.temporaryresidence.com/

Grails, Anches En Maat (2023)