Summer HOLY GRAIL Headlining Tour Hits Minneapolis on July 13

Not resting much after completion of their recent tour with Anthrax, Exodus, High On Fire, and Municipal Waste, thrashers Holy Grail will embark on their first North American headlining tour with support from new Nuclear Blast signee Anti-Mortem. The ambitious five and a half week tour starts June 19 in San Diego and circles nearly the entire U.S. and Canada before winding down in Hollywood on July 26. There's a stop in Minneapolis at The Nether Bar on Saturday, July 13; tickets go on sale Friday, May 10 at 10:00 am.

Holy Grail is out promoting their newly released second album Ride The Void (reviewed here, 6/10); the video for the title track can be viewed above.

Anti-Mortem

Anti-Mortem hails from Oklahoma, and released their self-titled debut album independently in 2010 (it's still available for download through CD Baby). A video for a re-worked version of "Stagnant Water" that will appear on the new album has been released which you can watch below. The band also released a video for the non-album track "Truck Stop Special" in 2011. No release date for Anti-Mortem's Nuclear Blast debut has been announced, but expect it to arrive this year. Head on over the band's webpage where you can download a demo version of "Stagnant Water".

Holy Grail with Anti-Mortem:

June 19 - San Diego, CA, Soda Bar

June 20 - Mesa, AZ, The Underground

June 21 - El Paso, TX, TBA

June 22 - Lubbock, TX, Jakes Sports Cafe

June 23 - San Antonio, TX, The Korova

June 24 - Austin, TX, Holy Mountain

June 25 - Houston, TX, Fitzgerald's Basement

June 26 - Dallas, TX, Double Wide

June 28 - New Orleans, LA, Siberia

June 29 - Atlanta, GA, The Earl

July 1 - Baltimore, MD, Metro Gallery

July 2 - New York, NY, Knitting Factory

July 3 - Wormleysburg, PA, Jaxx

July 5 - Stanhope, NJ, Stanhope House

July 6 - Hartford, CT, Arch Street Tavern

July 7 - Boston, MA, Great Scott

July 8 - Burlington, VT, Nectars

July 9 - Montreal, QC, Divan Orange

July 10 - Toronto, ON, Hard Luck Bar

July 11 - Cleveland, OH, Now That's Class

July 12 - Chicago, IL, Reggie's Rock Club

July 13 - Minneapolis, MN, The Nether Bar

July 15 - Winnipeg, MB, Zoo Cabaret

July 16 - Regina, SK, The Exchange

July 18 - Edmonton, AB, Wunderbar

July 19 - Calgary, AB, Dickens

July 21 - Vancouver, BC, The Astoria

July 22 - Seattle, WA, Highline

July 23 - Portland, OR, Backspace

July 25 - San Francisco, CA, Thee Parkside

July 26 - West Hollywood, CA, Whisky-A-Go-Go

Album Review - HOLY GRAIL

Holy Grail – Ride The Void

Prosthetic, 2013

6/10

Holy Grail has followed up their debut, Crisis In Utopia, with a highly technical, melodic, thrash-inspired album that aims high but ultimately fails to elicit much excitement. The instrumental “Archeus” leads off the album with a promising start before kicking into “Bestial Triumphans”. “Bestial Triumphans”, along with the next two songs, “Dark Passenger” and “Bleeding Stone”, really typify the whole album. Most songs are mid-tempo gallops or fast thrashers that have potential, but two aspects of Holy Grail’s approach dampen my enthusiasm. First, the technical guitar flourishes that populate Ride The Void like an album from old shred label Shrapnel, while impressive, are excessive and quite often seem out of place. Second, the clean melodic singing and a production with little bass suck all attempts at heaviness from the album. Quite simply, if this sounded like an honest-to-goodness metal album with balls and if the guitar noodling was toned down a bit, Ride The Void could be a great album. I lost interest after the first four songs, and it was a relief when the slow ballad “Rains Of Sorrow” closed the album. Give Holy Grail some credit for doing something different in a world of retro-thrash clones, but this style of melodic thrash-lite doesn’t cut it. I’d be willing to bet these songs sound better live, so it’s worth getting out to First Avenue early if you’re going to the Anthrax show tomorrow.

Holy Grail performs Thursday, April 4 at First Avenue in Minneapolis as support to Anthrax, Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste.