Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius
Chicago’s REZN – made of Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar), Phil Cangelosi (bass), Patrick Dunn (drums), and Spencer Ouellette (synth/saxophone) – present a new single/video, “Collapse,” off of their forthcoming album, Burden, out June 14th via Sargent House. In conjunction, they announce new headlining tour dates in North America with support from experimental Americana band Mute Duo. “Chasm,” opens with smoky, Eastern guitar melodies and swirling synth ambience before a distorted wall of sound comes crashing down on the listener. The accompanying video, directed by Chris Owsiany, features the band and encapsulates the song’s mood.
Watch REZN’s Video for “Collapse” here.
“It’s one of the more progressive and dynamic tracks on the record because we wanted to explore as many different corners of the lucid dream/harsh reality dichotomy as we could in the same song,” says McWilliams. “Themes of hallucination are all over Burden and the music video totally nailed that feeling by incorporating the liminal and obscured aspects you encounter when losing touch with reality.”
Since their inception, REZN have mined the stark monochromatic depths of underground metal and fused them with the kaleidoscopic delights of psychedelia, prog rock, and shoegaze. With their latest album Burden, they plumb the deepest, bleakest trenches of their sound while retaining a lifeline into the cosmos. Staking a claim at the crossroads of the hazy dimensions of modern psych acts like Black Angels, the cavernous gloom and reverb-drenched guitar of bands like Spectral Voice, and the lurching low-end meditations of artists like OM, REZN have created Burden—an album of immense amp-worshipping weight and intoxicating instrumentation.
Whereas Solace was meant to uplift and create a sense of narcotic dreaminess, Burden skews towards the themes of delirium, claustrophobia, and misery. Musically, Burden favors riffs over atmosphere, percussion over ether, dissonance over beauty, but there is still an undeniable cohesion between it and its predecessor. The marriage of brute force and sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach—a duality that may explain their touring history with fellow synesthesia-inducing metallurgists Elder and Russian Circles—but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully explored as it does on Burden.
As knowledgeable gear heads, experienced sound engineers, and seasoned DIY veterans, REZN have been a fiercely independent band with a fully realized aesthetic and a fervent cult following. They’ll take their incredible live show across the states this summer while supporting Pallbearer. Following, they’ll play their own headlining shows stateside before heading to support Russian Circles in Europe. A full list of dates can be found below.
Stream “Collapse”
https://found.ee/rezn-collapse
Pre-order Burden:
https://rezzzn.bandcamp.com/album/burden
REZN Tour Dates
Sat. May 11 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest Oslo
Tue. June 11 – Durham, NC @ The Fruit %
Wed. June 12 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy %
Thu. June 13 – Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker %
Fri. June 14 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Baltimore %
Sat. June 15 – Lancaster, PA @ Tellus360 %
Sun. June 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts %
Tue. June 18 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom %
Thu. June 20 -Brooklyn , NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg %
Fri. June 21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair %
Sat. June 22 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount %
Sun. June 23 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground %
Tue. June 25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium %
Wed. June 26 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall %
Thu. June 27 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club %
Fri. June 28 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck %
Sat. June 29 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall %
Fri. July 26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Post. Festival
Fri. Aug. 9 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s ^
Sat. Aug. 10 – Kansas City, MO @ MiniBar ^
Tue. Aug. 13 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive ^
Wed. Aug. 14 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High Saloon ^
Fri. Aug. 16 – Portland, OR @ Dante’s ^
Sat. Aug. 17 – Vancouver, BC @ Green Auto ^
Sun. Aug. 18 – Seattle, WA @ Substation ^
Tue. Aug. 20 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial ^
Wed. Aug. 21 – Oakland, CA @ Stork Club ^
Thu. Aug. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room ^
Fri. Aug. 23 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewing ^
Sat. Aug. 24 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Underground ^
Sun. Aug. 25 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar ^
Tue. Aug. 27 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips ^
Wed. Aug. 28 – Austin, TX @ The Lost Well ^
Wed. Oct. 9 – Berlin, DE @ Astra $
Thu. Oct. 10 – Koln, DE @ Kantine $
Fri. Oct. 11 – Munich, DE @ Keep It Low Festival $
Sat. Oct. 12 – Prague, CZ @ Archa $
Mon. Oct. 14 – Vienna, AT @ Arena $
Tue. Oct. 15 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon $
Thu. Oct. 17 – Metz, FR @ La Bam $
Fri. Oct. 18 – Antwerp, BE @ Desertfest $
Sun. Oct. 20 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument $
Mon. Oct. 21 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret $
Tue. Oct. 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan $
Thu. Oct. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega $
Fri. Oct. 25 – Aalborg, DK @ Lasher Fest $
Sat. Oct. 26 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich $
Tue. Oct. 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute2 $
Wed. Oct. 30 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay $
Thu. Oct. 31 – Belfast, N-IRE @ Limelight 2 $
Fri. Nov. 1 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory $
Sat. Nov. 2 – Manchester, UK @ Damnation Fest $
Sun. Nov. 3 – London, UK @ EartH $
Tue. Nov. 5 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon $
Wed. Nov. 6 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode $
Thu. Nov. 7 – Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa $
Sun. Nov. 10 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca $
Mon. Nov. 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Salamandra $
%= w/ Pallbearer
^ = w/ Mute Duo
$= w/ Russian Circles
Burden Tracklist
1. Indigo
2. Instinct
3. Descent of Sinuous Corridors
4. Bleak Patterns
5. Collapse
6. Soft Prey
7. Chasm