Posts Tagged ‘holy grail’
Holy Grail, Exmortus & Spellcaster Concert Review, Austin, TX, August 3, 2016
The Fellowship of the Strings Tour rolled in to Grizzly Hall yesterday featuring bands full of really good guitar players. Having seen all 3 bands before, there were no real surprises here.
Spellcaster hit the stage promptly at 815PM. Yes, you read that right. An early show on a weeknight. What a novel concept! There was no local opener and set times didn’t get announced until about an hour before the show. Had this show been downtown, it likely would have been a 10PM start time. For us day job folks, these early shows are great. Spellcaster’s slot was only 30 minutes and they blew through their set with ease. The crowd was at about 60 people by my rough count during their set. They sounded great. I can’t recommend their latest album, Night Hides the World, enough.
Immediately after the set I hustled next door to grab a couple of al pastor tacos from Taco More. Delicious I tell ya! There was only 15 minutes between sets as all 3 bands were sharing the backline. Exmortus was already on by the time I got back and I enjoyed their set a little more than I did last time. The growing crowd was really into it and I think they may have had about 80 people.
Holy Grail rolls through Austin on the regular and the crowd had thinned out a little, but was still very much into the show. To be honest, this may have been the best of the 4 shows I have seen by them. James Luna’s voice was pretty much flawless. They finished around 1115ish and all three bands just hung around and drank with the remainder of the crowd.
I bought a Spellcaster shirt, said a few goodbyes to them and some other friends and went home. It was a fun early night.
Holy Grail & Savage Master Concert Review, Austin, TX, May 31, 2016
Savage Master began their tour with Holy Grail last night here in Austin at Dirty Dog. They had just come off of a European tour that included playing the Keep It True Festival.
Last night’s show was an early show with Savage Master going on at 930PM and headliners, Holy Grail, going on shortly after 1030PM. Perfect.
I saw a couple of songs from each of the two openers. I didn’t hate either of them nor did I really get into them.
Savage Master hit the stage with a revamped lineup due to an abrupt exit by their former drummer. Brandon, formerly their bassist, is handling drum duties for the tour and they have a fill-in bassist. They opened the show with 6 songs from their latest album, With Whips and Chains. I hadn’t heard anything from the album prior to the show beyond the title track. Everything sounded really good. The final 4 songs were from their 2014 debut, Mask of the Devil. Overall they sounded good and it’s always nice to hang out with them. Good people. As with their last show in Austin, I let them stay at my place. I like being able to help my friends when they’re out on the road.
Holy Grail was up next and the crowd got to maybe 50 total…MAYBE. Other than the first time I saw them at SxSW several years back, I’ve not really been able to get into them. They just leave me bored. All competent musicians, just nothing that catches my ear. I left after about 3 or 4 songs.
It’s funny how divisive this band seems to be, though. Most of my friends either love them or hate them. There’s really no middle ground.
Go see Savage Master on this tour. Buy some stuff.
Holy Grail & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, December 7, 2015
My good friends in Night Demon rolled back into Austin this week as direct support for LA’s Holy Grail. With it being a Monday night I was a little concerned as to how well attended this show would be, but it did better than I expected.
The ND guys got to my house around 4:30PM after a long drive from Albuquerque and promptly unloaded their bags and started taking showers and just relaxing a bit before we head to the show for load in. This is the 3rd time they’ve stayed here and they now have their own key to my house. Great guys.
The show had 4 openers going on before ND. Fortunately I liked two of them already, Blood for Master and Widower. Both bands put on solid sets as usual. Blood for Master played some new stuff from their latest disc. Widower pretty much destroyed everything in their path. Love seeing both bands. I went elsewhere during the other 2 bands. A few seconds into each of their sets and I knew I didn’t need to be there.
Night Demon comes on shortly after 10PM with their Conan the Barbarian intro and bust right into Screams in the Night and Full Speed Ahead. The crowd of about 75 or so was very into it. They played 7 more songs closing with Night Demon. Great set as always and it seems like they picked up some new fans.
After about a 20 minute break, Holy Grail comes on and while the crowd thinned out a little, the faithful remained and stayed right up front. They were really solid and I like their guitarists a lot. The only thing I don’t lik.e it the occasional death metal growls. They don’t need it but I guess it’s what the kids want these days. They also played a decent cover of King Diamond’s No Presents for Christmas. Solid set.
After load out and coming back to my house, I made tacos…again. Night Demon loves my tacos. haha
The Metal Files 
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