It has been long overdue since we received a follow up release to REZN‘s masterful Chaotic Divine, which was widely adored by our writing team given that it appeared on the list of our favorite albums from 2020 and rightfully so indeed. Thankfully we don’t have to wait much longer now as we are rapidly approaching the release of Solace, which is set for release in early March. We’ve been given a healthy taste of what to expect with lead single, “Possession”, which naturally left our team frothing at the mouth wanting more. In anticipation of Solace‘s release, Everything Is Noise is ecstatic to bring you the next glimpse into their magical aural world. Come join us for an exclusive premiere of “Reversal” down below!
If you’re like me, you likely haven’t heard of REZN until it was force fed down your throat by the folks at EIN and I am all the better for it, and I can guarantee that you will be too. That speaks volumes about the music as you can’t really guarantee anything to anyone in this day in age, but REZN are otherworldly. The Chicago doom/stoner four-piece have never shied away from getting ‘weird’ as with each successive album release of theirs, they double down on their experimentation and tastefully accentuate their songs with a wide array of instruments and influences derived from various cultures from around the world.
On previous records, they’ve incorporated use of culturally traditional instruments such as the sitar, oud, bağlama, and also even a rainstick into their sound on top of having saxophone, flute, piano, and synthesizer. Disclaimer that they don’t use all these instruments at once or all within a single song but rather focus on them one at a time to give their songs distinct personalities. Blend this all together with their reliably crushing doom sound (in a tasteful manner of course) and you get a musical experience that takes you to the deepest, unexplored crevices in your subconscious.
“Reversal” is more of a ‘conventional’ (the band is anything but) slow burner that allows for REZN to paint their gorgeously haunting soundscapes that fans can count on without any shadow of a doubt. It builds and collapses and builds and collapses again just like the nightmare-inducing program on treadmills or similar exercise machines that is nothing but hills and valleys. My personal favorite thing about this track is how the track ends, as the main rhythm we’ve come to be familiar with as we listen to “Reversal” reverberates in the clean guitar tone, leading to nothing but silence to mark the completion of the song. But when the same track is looped immediately after it ends, the immediate opening riff is that very same rhythm that it closes out with, but heavily distorted. I honestly listened through the track like 3 times at first before I had realized that I was listening to it on repeat. It was that smooth that it felt like a natural break in the song and I never thought anything of it until an suspicious amount of time had already passed.
It isn’t much longer until Solace drops for the world to hear thankfully and I myself am beyond eager to hear it in full. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest you give them a follow on their socials (Facebook | Instagram | Website) and swing by their Bandcamp page to check out more of their wicked tunes. Based on what I’ve heard thus far from the record, I’d wager that REZN‘s latest effort is bound to end up on our 2023 AOTY list as consistent quality is what they’re known for.
