REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future

 

 

REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future
Blues Funeral Recordings – 2023
Rock, Metal, Doom, Stoner, Psych
Rated: *****

I was so lucky to see Vinnum Sabbathi live on Sonic Whip Festival this year, where they majestically showed, with intense concentration, that when these Mexicans play live, they exhume sheer power and control. And the moments when they let loose, the chaos that results is always exactly the way Vinnum Sabbathi wants it to flow and sound. Controlled, powerful chaos, like a perfect swirling Taoistic ritual. To hear them now team up with REZN, feels like a match made in heaven. Especially since this is not a split album as you might expect. No, this is a collaboration that preys on the best aspects of both bands. We get seven intense tracks that feel as expansive, cinematic, and forceful as anything Vinnum Sabbathi might produce and as atmospheric, post rocking, psychedelic and wild as REZN’s, only a few months old, own album Solace. There’s such beauty and honesty at work here, that there’s no other word for this than: art. The two bands manage to weave an intricate and extremely detailed psychedelic tapestry that feels like you are on a majestic adventure into the outer reaches of everything. For this isn’t just a cosmic trip, there’s something that seems to focus on hyper reality. Complex, yet highly transparent, the merging of both worlds begins with Unknown Ancestor right after opening intro Born Into Catatonia. Which, in itself, sets things up with a fluid, earthy and rising tone, that becomes more cosmic as it rises and in the end is complimented by a voice, sound effect, snippet of an astronaut ready for exploration. Perfectly executed, and in such a way I was searching for which obscure science fiction movie it originated from. But finding out it is all original work, provided by Manuel Wohlrab from German outfit Yanos and Zone Six. Incredible! And then it continues in that following Unknown Ancestor track, on top of a flowing guitar line and elegant keywork, before drums and vocals take over. The buildup of those two tracks is so exquisitely done, you become so anxious to hear it all, the giddy anticipation growing by the second. Describing what follows will always fall short of the level of detail that went into Silent Future, just continue on to that third The Cultigen track, so peaceful and luscious, with so many brilliant layers; that it feels like you can actually see the glittering diamond in front of you and you are dazzled continuously. And the fact its offset to an in part bleak outlook on the future, enhances that sparkling and twinkling even more. Hypersurreal might be the doomiest track on the album, but even in those darkest moments there is so much light and air to make it all breathe and shine. Clusters serves as the perfect atmospheric and psychedelic intermission, to let the heaviness of Hypersurreal fade away and prepare yourself for the rising following track Morphing. That early guitar work, in a precise and pointillism-esque way, accents the roving melody. Vocals ascend on top of it all, and those drums propelling it all towards a distant sphere, but where you expect it to really explode near the end like a cosmic cataclysm, it does not so much as explode, but more breakup, into a million pieces, fracturing and fraying and drifting away into the endless void. The final track Obliterating Mists oversees the fragments, captures the whole and watches as history turns into the future, moves through all sorts of euphoric aural states. And why these two bands together merge so well, or why this album seems to perform miracles at every miniscule moment in time, is a mystery. This is the mystery that keeps me needing. And this is an album where words like masterpiece fall short as qualification.

(Written by JK)

REZN Homepage

REZN Bandcamp

REZN Instagram

REZN Facebook

REZN Youtube

Vinnum Sabbathi Bandcamp

Vinnum Sabbathi Instagram

Vinnum Sabbathi Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings