Max Doyle - GUITAR/VOICE
Jackie Perez Gratz - ELECTRIC CELLO/VOICE
Zack Farwell - DRUMS/DRUMS
Influences
Heavy Metal / Prog / Classical / Rock-n-Roll
Sounds Like
"FURTHER DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: It was barely a year ago that these eclectic avant-gardists known as Grayceon threw an abstract wrench into the gears of conventional music with their surreal self-titled debut, and already the trio has a new album’s worth of material for the world to wrap its head around. Where last year’s magnum opus was an exploration into innovative territory, This 'Grand Show' finds the band settling into themselves and a signature sound. This comfort zone enables the guitar, cello, and drum ensemble to further experiment with and make broader sweeps across the sonic landscape that they have created. Once again, Grayceon treats tempo, time signature, genre constraints, and song structure like rag dolls to be tossed around at their demented whims. The end result comes across as more focused and filled with complexity. Bookended by two tracks that showcase a more upbeat and metallic side of the band (“It Begins, and So It Ends” and “This Grand Show Is Eternal”), the rest of the disc consists of three epic length adventures through melodies and sounds of varying emotional states. On the surface, This Grand Show might not differ much from the band’s debut, but the dedicated listener will find a much more provocative, intense, and intricate piece of work this time around." ~ Ryan Ogle (OUTBURN 2008)
"[Grayceon] have returned to give us yet another stunning record that, like its debut will be in the running for album of the year. Stylistically, not much has changed in the Grayceon camp. They still play a dreamy, eclectic mix of cello driven post rock thrash mix that comes across like Apocalyptica, Neurosis and Metallica capped off with a Nyquil fueled lullaby. The sense of desolate beauty and artistic, ambitious catharsis that swells in Grayceon’s sound is one that truly should be experienced in a near sleep daze where Gratz’s angelic cellos and voice can carry you of to pillowy soft realms. Only to be awoken be stern thrash rumblings and progressive, angular riffage.... This Grand Show is more than an ample follow up to the superb debut. It’s a deeper more personal album littered with the same strains of musical brilliance and artistry and will no doubt end up, like the debut, high on my year end list. -Erik Thomas (TEETH OF THE DIVINE 2008 - check out full review!)
"Billing Grayceon as ‘Jackie Gratz from Amber Asylum’s metal band’ is a bit of a misnomer. The guitar/drums/cello instrumentation driving this band falls outside metal’s confines, as does guitarist Max Doyle’s finger-picking style, masterful as it may be. There are, however, moments of pure metallic bombast provided by Zack Farwell’s punishing battery, while the eerie moan of Gratz’s cello trading off with Doyle places heavier, uptempo tracks like ‘Song For You’ somewhere in line with Apocolyptica, Neurosis, and neo-classical thrash of The Fucking Champs. Excellent, regardless what you call it." -TERRORIZER 2007
"Grayceon’s potluck rock is captivating, smart and challenging. It’s the sort of left-of-center approach to heavy (mental) music that comes out of Eastern Europe, but considering the acid-soaked specter of Haight-Asbury still haunts San Fran’s music scene, Grayceon are wondrously peculiar in all the right places." -DECIBEL 2007
"A hint of King Crimson, a dash of Ved Buens Ende, a splash of Pelican and perhaps even a whiff of Dysrythmia, and you’re not even close. A point of departure is hard to find for Grayceon, yet the music sounds oddly familiar and not at all alien, even though the individual parts are challenging and ambitious. ...Sometimes bands are truly indescribable. Not because they are unique, but because their sincerity and passion set them apart, and makes them more than what a couple sentences strung together can say. Grayceon is one of those bands. With the post-rock trend absolutely exploding over the last few years, Grayceon steps in, and brings something new, something fresh and livens up the dull and predictable formulas that others seem to be stuck in, all the while, never really subscribing to one group, or set of theories." -METAL MANIACS 2007
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This Grand Show (Vendlus Records) 2008 - $11
Grayceon (Vendlus Records) 2007 - $10
The West - split 7-inch with Giant Squid (The End Records) 2007 - $8
Grayceon T-Shirt - Gold and Black ink on black shirt - $12
..P.R. by XO Publicity. Please contact for interviews or review requests.
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Grayceon is Jackie Perez Gratz (Amber Asylum/Giant Squid) on electric cello and voice, Max Doyle (Walken) on guitar and voice, and Zack Farwell (Walken) on drums.
Grayceon pulls together an extremely diverse range of musical influences and writing styles to create a fresh sound that defies the boundaries of the metal/rock/progressive genres. Compared to Opeth, King Crimson, and Ved Buens Ende, not in sound but in 'feel', Grayceon embraces the hard-to-describe-them definition and expects no hard comparisons to be made any time soon.
Alternate low tuning on both cello and guitar, finger picked metal riffs, dreamy double vocals, and unpredictably impeccable drumming all meet to give Grayceon their unique sensibility.
Grayceon's NEW album, "This Grand Show" (Vendlus Records) was released on November 11, 2008. We are interviewed in the latest copy (February) of Metal Maniacs or read an online interview with Peacedogman here!
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Local filmmakers, Kill That Cat, created this mini-movie to a song from the debut album "Song For You". Check it out! But, beware, it's not for the squeamish...
Live at El Rio. This is one of the new songs off our new album...
Grayceon (US tour in August ’09)'s Friend Space (Top 40)
Grayceon (US tour in August ’09) has 6651 friends.
A rare triple headliner pairing North Bay progressive/black/death metallers Cormorant with folk/ heavy metal legends Slough Feg and the avant-garde, cello-heavy brilliance of Giant Squid at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma on Friday, June 26th. Also playing are Helms Alee, from Seattle, fresh off their main support slot on the Isis tour, and the twin bass guitar attack of Chico’s ambient sludge lords La Fin Du Monde. A once-in-a-lifetime taste of the eclectic SF underground metal scene north of the Golden Gate! Doors are at 7:30, and the show is ALL-AGES.
Cormorant: www.myspace.com/cormorantmusic
Slough Feg: http://www.myspace.com/sloughfeg
Giant Squid: http://www.myspace.com/giantsquid
Helms Alee: http://www.myspace.com/helmsaleemusic
La Fin Du Monde: http://www.myspace.com/lafindumondeband
New Orleans... Yippie... C u guys when u get here. I miss my West Coast folks. If u need a place to crash, no worries~ Hope all is well with everyone & looking 4ward to the show. Hugs, Love, Peace ..just a few of my favorite things.
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