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Recording:
  Silent Future  
 
Artist(s):
  REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi
 
 
Label:
  Blues Funeral  
 
Release Date:
  11.August.2023  
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Since i encountered doom metal / dub / jazz band REZN way back in 2022, i have been following what they are up to. In 2023, they released a new album, and then later came out with this record in collaboration with Vinnum Sabbathi.

Vinnum Sabbathi are a band from Mexico named after an Electric Wizard song. As such, it's hard to find a lot of info about them directly, but it appears that they are a sci-fi doom metal band. Sounds right up my alley, to be honest...

At any rate, the two bands collaborate here on about half an hour of sludgey rock that tells a sort of story. I think.

We start off with Born Into Catatonia, an spacey, ambient intro. A voice comes in sounding like something from an old Japanese sci fi film and talks about exploring some planet. Eventually a sparse guiatr comes in, and we are in Unknown Ancestor. The voice is punctutated by static, like it is coming via a radio. And then, suddenly, REZN hits, with some intesne riffing, spacey keys, and Rob McWilliams nasally voice. The riffing flows into The Cultigen, which has echoing keys more prominent in the mix.

Those first three songs seem to blend into one another, so that you don't really know you are in a different song until you look at the record or the MP3 software. But after The Cultigen there is a pause, a moment of separation, and then thunderous ruffs, just some really intense pounding kicks off the next track, Hypersurreal. It has slower choruses that sound REZN-y, with McWilliams singing over sparse guitars, and then the guitars come and it thunders for a bit. The spoken word voice says something about "a single organism attempting synaptic contact with us" and i am reminded of the old Russian sci-fi film Solaris. This is a powerful tune.

They give us a psychedelic interlude of keys and wandering tones next with Clusters This seems like something out of a mid 90s ambient record, as the voice gives us some more info about the story.

Morphing is next. Another guitar rock tune, but more prog than metal here. This starts sparse arpeggios and builds to some amazing drumming , perhaps drummers from both bands going at it at the same time as McWilliams wails away.

And finally we end with Obliterating Mists, which I think kind of gives away the end of the story the album tells. It is loud, angry, McWilliams singing forcefully, the guitars thundering, the spoken word part full of despair. A strong end.

So I am impressed. REZN continues to make good music, and I think I need to look into Vinnum Sabbathi more. If you like loud, mid-tempoed metal blended with sci-fi, then this is a fascinating release.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

https://rezzzn.bandcamp.com/album/silent-future
https://www.rezn.band/
https://www.facebook.com/reznband
https://www.facebook.com/VinnumSabbathi/
https://vinnumsabbathi.bandcamp.com/music

 
         

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