It's been a long time since Eddie Van Halen tore into “Eruption” at Sunset Sound in 1977, or Slayer and Megadeth escalated the thrash-metal arms race in the early '80s. But Pasadena's Holy Grail prove L.A. is still a haven for behemoth riffs, breakneck solos and metal shrieks to raise the dead. Their 2016 concept album, Times of Pride and Peril, is a 45-minute thrill ride, combining the pyrotechnics of guitarists Eli Santana and Alex Lee with the piston-pumping rhythms of drummer Tyler Meahl and bassist Blake Mount and James Paul Luna's operatic vocals. While their biggest inspiration is clearly New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, they inject serious doses of rumbling thrash metal and symphonic prog, all of it undergirding massive hooks that are all their own. Like the L.A. metal warriors that came before them, Holy Grail have done their time on the stages at the Roxy and the Whisky, but they're also true road dogs, having already criss-crossed the country multiple times this year alone. Stick around after the show and you might even be treated to a few of Lee's insane yo-yo tricks.

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