STREAM / ORDER ‘BURDEN’

“[Burden is] massive and immersive” - Stereogum

“the most unique collection of songs [REZN] has cooked up” - Flood

"as if you’re being summoned by Lucifer himself" - Kerrang!

“Burden signals a bold and brilliant new era for the band” - Metal Hammer

Today, Chicago’s REZN release their new album, Burden, via Sargent House. The marriage of brute force with sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach, but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully harnessed as it does on Burden. Stream and order vinyl, CDs, and merch at Hello Merch and Evil Greed in Europe at the link above.

Since their inception, Chicago’s 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, the quartet 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.

REZN is currently on tour with Pallbearer in the US. In August, they kick off their headlining run, followed by a European tour with fellow Sargent House artists Russian Circles. Snag tickets below and hear Burden live.

ALL DATES AND TICKETS

This Friday (6/14), Chicago’s REZN will release their new album, Burden, via Sargent House. Today, they present “Indigo,” the album opener. “Indigo” finds the rhythm section of bassist Phil Cangelosi and drummer Patrick Dunn churning out an authoritative Godflesh-like battery while vocalist/guitarist Rob McWilliams and synth player/saxophonist Spencer Ouellette drape their martial stomp in ominous interwoven melodies. The marriage of brute force with sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach, but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully harnessed as it does on Burden.

Listen to REZN’s “Indigo”

While REZN’s previous album, Solace, embraced similar contrasts, it leaned towards the loftier peaks in the band’s sound, as evidenced in the album’s artwork of snow topped mountains provided by Adam Burke / Nightjar Illustration. Burden’s artwork is a literal continuation of Solace’s landscape painting, showing the fiery depths at the foot of the mountain range. The marriage of brute force and sublime textures has always been a key tactic in REZN’s approach, but the spectrum of the band’s mercurial temperaments has never felt as clearly defined and fully explored as it does on Burden.

Tonight (6/11), REZN kick off their North American tour with Pallbearer. Following, they’ll headline dates across the US before heading to Europe to play with Russian Circles. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets for all dates are on sale HERE

REZN Tour Dates
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
 

"Some bands build worlds. REZN hope you explore their universe. “We do leave quite a bit up for interpretation,” bassist Phil Cangelosi, accompanied by the three other members of the Chicago quartet, says over Zoom. “We don’t have anything that’s super on the nose. Our goal is to bring you to a place and not necessarily tell you what to do once you’re there.” Guitarist and vocalist Rob McWilliams chimes in: “It’s definitely just setting a scene for someone.”

Burden, REZN’s forthcoming fifth full-length and a companion to 2023’s Solace, sets a scene like it’s an open-world video game. The DIY outfit’s first release on the venerable Sargent House is massive and immersive. “Indigo,” the opening track that further expands the already intrepid band’s timbral palette, drops you into a dark, dangerous netherworld. Drummer Patrick Dunn pounds his kit with the force of a slipping fault line. Modular synth player and saxophonist Spencer Ouellette produces dizzying layers that hang like noxious gasses. Cangelosi’s churning bass juts upwards like jagged stalagmites. And McWilliams’ guitar and vocals dizzily swirl like the uncontainable dread of intense claustrophobia. Within a few seconds, you know exactly where you’re at, and the walls are closing in.

However, how you choose to navigate Burden’s subterranean labyrinth is up to you. That’s REZN’s great gift. Although the band constructs and sequences songs with cinematic grace, effortlessly herding listeners along their journey, the contours of that journey are left up to the experiencer. In a sense, REZN act almost like a mood ring, matching whatever you’re feeling. That mirror-to-the-self approach permits you to discover whatever you need to hear at the heart of Burden, one of those rare musical adventures that meets you where you’re at instead of the other way around. In that way, REZN are part of the burgeoning field of “big feelings metal” pioneered by Convulsing and the like, but it also makes a case for empath metal. You feel like Burden feels you. It can be cathartic, leading you out of the dark, labyrinthine confines of your own psyche. Burden can and probably will lift burdens."

Read the full feature HERE

Chicago’s REZN have released 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. “Collapse,” the follow-up to “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. “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 Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar). “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.”

WATCH / STREAM “COLLAPSE”

PRE-ORDER ‘BURDEN’

Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius
 

REZN – the Chicago-based band of Rob McWilliams (vocals, guitar), Phil Cangelosi (bass), Patrick Dunn (drums), and Spencer Ouellette (synth/saxophone) – announce their new album, Burden, out June 14^th via their new label Sargent House. In conjunction, they present its massive lead single/video, “Chasm.” 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.

Burden was recorded simultaneously with their previous album Solace back in July 2021 at Earth Analog Studios in Tolono, IL by Matt Russell. Rather than release a double album, REZN divided the material into two separate records, each with its own distinct emotional timbre. 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

Burden’s artwork is a literal continuation of Solace’s landscape painting, showing the fiery depths at the foot of the mountain range. Even Burden’s most reserved moments feel like the calm before the storm, a gathering of momentum before the punishing closer and lead single “Chasm,” a megalithic weedian crusher further bolstered by a scorching guitar solo courtesy of Russian Circle’s Mike Sullivan. “We wrote ‘Chasm’ to depict the final phase of an existential descent, when you're on the last few steps of the spiral staircase and realize there's no going back,” says Rob McWilliams. “We wanted it to sound like walls closing in on all sides and you're looking at the exit getting further and further away. Mike’s melodic finger-tapping style blurs the section into a kind of dizzying, infernal panic attack. In the final moment of the song you're faced with the repetitive churning of a molten, fuzzed-out wall of sound that builds until the audio itself starts to singe and catch fire, then abruptly self destructs."

 
Watch REZN’s Video for “Chasm”

 As knowledgeable gear heads, experienced sound engineers, and seasoned DIY veterans, REZN were able to create an early body of work devoid of any sonic compromises in their speaker-rattling dirges and heady lysergic forays. Their four self-released albums—Let It Burn (2017), Calm Black Water (2018), Chaotic Divine (2020), and Solace (2023)—have all gone through multiple vinyl pressings and the international underground heavy psych world has routinely selected the band for distinguished festival slots across North America and Europe. From their inception, REZN have been a fiercely independent band with a fully realized aesthetic and a fervent cult following. Now ready to take things even further, REZN have teamed up with Sargent House to release Burden unto the world.
 
This summer, REZN will tour across North America with Pallbearer. Following, they’ll tour in Europe with new label mates Russian Circles as well as performing at multiple festival. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.

 
Pre-order Burden
 
Burden Tracklist
1. Indigo
2. Instinct
3. Descent of Sinuous Corridors
4. Bleak Patterns
5. Collapse
6. Soft Prey
7. Chasm
 
REZN Tour Dates
Sat. May 11 - Oslo, NO @ Desertfest Oslo
Tue. June 11 - Durham, NC @ The Fruit %
Wed. June 12 - Asheville, NC @ Eulogy %
Jun 13 - Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker Brewpub %
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 %
Wed. July 26  - Indianapolis, IN @ Post. Festival
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/ Russian Circles