Over the last decade, Chicago quartet REZN have carved out a unique place in the landscape of heavy music, chiseling away at the crude formations of the topography, mining the most concentrated metallic ore from the dirt, and shaping it all into something monumental, imposing, and divine. While REZN has always fused seismic riffs with effortless beauty and grandeur, their shifting strategies for wielding that polarity have involved varied compositional and stylistic decisions, most notably the light-and-dark contrast of companion albums 'Solace' (2023) and 'Burden' (2024). But with their newest full-length offering, 'Cycles in the Infinite Dream', REZN masterfully harness the oppressive weight of their full sonic armory to celestial melodies and sublime synesthesia-inducing atmospherics in a manner so seamless it feels otherworldly, as if occupying a liminal space between two realities.
While REZN traffic in the unbridled realms of metal and untethered reaches of psychedelia, their latest release showcases a band working with discipline and intention, even when those intentions are rendered to be purposefully cryptic. As the album title implies, 'Cycles in the Infinite Dream' explores the nexus of our waking and nocturnal worlds. “We moved towards the dream and subconscious state as a lyrical concept and melodic theme,” the band explains. “The pseudo-waking state is a reflection of a second existence—something that you can flee to or be imprisoned by.” Much like the subconscious-guided work of David Lynch, Cycles in the Infinite Dream exists as parallax between the artist and the audience, creating an obscured and distorted space that is both familiar and alien, like a corridor into our past where we recognize our surroundings but somehow still feel lost within its warped geometry.
One of REZN’s most understated assets lies within guitarist/singer Rob McWilliams’ vocal approach. Eschewing heavy music’s guttural growls or operatic gymnastics, McWilliams has been steadfast in his soaring, delay-drenched melodies, providing a beguiling path through even the most primal and pummeling moments in the band’s repertoire. Like a piper calling you to join him, McWilliams forges through the darkness yet remains cloaked in mystery. Indeed, the voice serves more as an instrument and a guidepost than as a vehicle for poetry or a portrait of a personality. “Most of the instrumentation was created with vocal melodies in mind,” the band clarifies. “We made a lot of choices that were dictated by the vocals, sometimes rewriting songs completely if the vocal melodies demanded it.” That said, the band’s instrumentation on the album is still in the foreground and is an exceptionally mesmerizing presence throughout.
REZN have long operated—and thrived—in the subterranean realm of music heads who crave the aural equivalent of altered states. And with 'Cycles in the Infinite Dream', they have created their most psychotropic work to date.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Bracingly heavy, distorted mayhem on Sargen House's newest LP from Chicago post-metalers REZN. Though the overwhelming atmosphere is one of gothic intensity and metallic heft, the moments of (relatively) quiet introspective melodicism remind me of the later day ISIS albums or even Cave-In's more psychedelic moments. Ace.
TRACK LISTING
1. Rites of Passage
2. Transient
3. Cloudfall
4. Aerial Birth
5. Devotion
6. The Vessel
7. Escher
8. Primal Thread
9. Terra Preta
