REZN – Cycles in the Infinite Dream

REZN is not a name that often appears in recommendations. And yet! Since 2016, the American quartet has been working in the shadows, crossing the boundaries between genres. On July 24, they released Cycles In The Infinite Dream, their seventh album, more hypnotic and unsettling than ever. RockUrLife guides you through this cosmic journey signed by REZN.

If one had to describe the group’s sound, you might find a hint of Mastodon, nods to Alice In Chains, a touch of Deftones, a generous dose of delay, an ethereal voice that is sometimes haunting, and that secret ingredient that gives REZN its signature. But comparisons are always reductive, so let the album speak for itself.

Dreamlike Introspection

With Cycles In The Infinite Dream, REZN offers more than a simple collection of tracks. The album explores the philosophical concept of the subconscious. We drift in this suspended space between dream and wakefulness, which alternately takes the form of an escape and a mental prison from which there is no escape.

From the opening, “Rite Of Passage” opens a portal to an inner universe. The guitar riff, repeated like a mantra, hypnotizes us before giving way to a majestic first chorus. The tone is set: this album will be as sublime as it is perturbing. The voice of Rob McWilliam, drowned in delay, floats like a distant echo and guides us into the winding paths of our own minds.

Yet this introduction is only a prelude. Very quickly, we plunge into that blurry zone where dream and reality merge. “Cloudfall”, musical sleep paralysis, pins us down with its crushing riff that contrasts with the luminous melodies of the previous tracks. For REZN, the realm of dreams is no comforting refuge.

This strange beauty takes shape on the cover. A magnificent surreal artwork by Jacques de Beaufort, it depicts a kind of abstract communion whose edges blur the more you study it. Like REZN‘s music, it ends up provoking a sense of unease, as alluring as it is disquieting.

Musical Depth

While McWilliam‘s spectral singing contributes to the album’s depth, REZN enchants us with a palette as rich as it is colorful. Spencer Ouellette, a talented multi-instrumentalist, makes a mark with his decadent saxophone solo on “Transient”, but also with the cinematic violin textures of “Devotion”. Here you have the soundtrack to a restless sleep where fear, nostalgia, wonder, and bliss cross paths.

The instrument that truly plunges us into the world of Morpheus is the lap steel guitar. This flat-angled guitar produces airy, seductive tones that we hear on “Escher”, a luminous interlude that offers a breathing space in the heart of this descent into the subconscious.

Shifting Contrasts

Cycles In The Infinite Dream recalls the descent of Dante and Virgil through the nine circles of Hell in The Divine Comedy. Here too, we progress through nine stages. Each track carries us a little further into the depths of the psyche.

We oscillate constantly between beauty and unease, lightness and gravity. “The Vessel” illustrates this perfectly, with its colossal riff clashing with a celestial chorus. The same can be said of “Primal Thread” and the bass line by Phil Cangelosi, which opens with a melancholic groove before exploding into devastating power.

Yet the journey ends on a grand climax: “Terra Preta”. A seven-minute odyssey in the Pink Floyd vein. The calm gradually returns, as if a form of melancholic peace is being restored. The bright melodies envelop us, but Patrick Dunn‘s drums retain an abyssal strength. The album slowly guides us back to its starting point, closing the loop of this cycle of infinite dreams.

With Cycles In The Infinite Dream, REZN adds a new stone to the edifice of psychedelic space rock, without ever renouncing heaviness. With a unique sonic identity, a time-defying universe, and a mystic sense of storytelling, the band delivers a masterpiece to be savored without moderation, one that will accompany your wildest dreams.

The REZN – Cycles In The Infinite Dream article originally appeared first on RockUrLife – a rock, metal, alternative, pop, punk, indie webzine.