I caught Grayceon from San Francisco a week or so ago in Chicago. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they were really fantastic. The trio has roots in metal, but manage to take things in a more melodic, progressive direction without sacrificing heaviness. Their complex arrangements shift between languid, cello-driven segments to riff-heavy parts complete with double bass drums. Cellist Jackie Perez Gratz’ operatic vocal lines in conjunction with guitarist Max Doyle’s monk-like baritone up the chamber-music feel of their sound, but they still hit the right spots to get people headbanging.
[audio:http://grayceon.com/mp3s/songforyou_album.mp3]

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Sharing cellist Jackie Perez Gratz with fellow Bay Area post-metal band Grayceon, Giant Squid use metal as a springboard to create and juxtapose a variety of unexpected sounds — horns, keyboards, Middle Eastern melodies, and even some swing. Though often brought up in the same sentence as bands such as Isis and Jesu, their almost manic incorporation of seemingly disparate elements keeps them much more interesting than other watered-down, metal-inspired acts.

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