A weekend distraction - the excellent music video for the first single from Massive Attack's latest album Heligoland: "Splitting the Atom". Watch it all the way through for the full effect...

Samples from the rest of the album are available on Amazon. Massive Attack produce some wonderful albums, worth getting into.

For all the music-lovers out there, a glimpse of two of the best drummers around, playing together: Brann Dailor from Mastodon and Danny Carey from Tool at last week's Guitar Center Drum Off:

Massive.

Tonight I've posted my Darklore Volume 2 article "Occult Rock" here on TDG. Let's have some fun with the topic and do a poll on the band out there with the most occult/esoteric vibe to it - so who are the contenders? Tool definitely, perhaps Mastodon, probably The Tea Party. Coming from a more psychedelic-esoterica angle, Shpongle? Post a comment and let me know who you think should be on the poll, and then I'll add it to the site.

I thought Mastodon's Crack the Skye was going to easily top my list of best albums of 2009. Then along came Isis, with Wavering Radiant, and suddenly we've got another contender. It's dark, melancholic, and absolutely beautiful. From the album, here's "20 Minutes/40 Years":

A great film clip which perfectly fits the music.

Today's musical interlude on the Grail: 'Coast', from the album Ki by the Devin Townsend Project, featuring an excellent 'captured alien' video vibe (directed by Konrad Palkiewicz):

Ki is the first of a 4-album 'concept' - the second in the series (Addicted) will be released next week. Townsend is an independent musician, so if you like what you hear send some love his way by purchasing the album through his website.

Because the more Maynard we all have, the better the world will be - Puscifer, "The Mission":

The new Puscifer EP is due out November 10.

With my own appreciation of prog rock and metal, and generous linkage from the likes of the esteemed BMB at Tool's website, it seems the Daily Grail has built up quite an audience of music enthusiasts. What's more, there's a fair bunch of musicians out there as well. Case in point: TDG reader Ross Morgan, whose band 'Holloway' has just released their album Illusions. I hear aspects of the likes of Riverside and Opeth in there (not to mention a bit of Mike Oldfield's Exorcist theme). Here's the vid for Holloway's first single, The Visitor:

The samples sound pretty damn cool - to listen head on over to the band's MySpace page, and then go to the Holloway website for instructions on how to get hold of their album for not much more than the price of a coffee.

We also have our fair share of trance-heads and lovers of electronica - just this week we've got a banner at the top of TDG for Mystical Sun. Any other bands/musicians out there reading the Grail?

Mastodon rocks, okay? So sit back and enjoy the video for Divinations, from their epic album Crack the Skye. I justify putting it here on TDG because it has a Yeti in it. But any video that has a cannibalistic caveman ripping a spacey surf guitar solo is alright in my books anyhow...

Best album of the year so far in my books. But then, I love metal and I love classic/psychedelic rock, so how can it not be.

Regular readers will know that I love my prog rock and metal. Though there's not going past those Tool folks (IMO...especially seeing as Blair mentions TDG and Darklore over there), this new album is certainly getting some spins on my stereos: Crack the Skye, by Mastodon. Great collection of tracks, awesome musicianship, and lyrics all about astral projection and such - what's not to like (plus a bonus DVD with some behind the scenes looks at the making of the album). You can hear a bit more at the Crack the Skye website (warning: large-sized Flash preload), and "The Last Baron" which I posted here a couple of weeks ago. Or just buy the damn album already.

Oh, and great solos too. And who doesn't love a good guitar solo...not enough of them these days I say.