Sometimes, it’s nice to be spoiled. Not like mayo-filled potato salad after eight hours in the sun at the family BBQ or the average state of a corpse on death metal album art, but like a little kid on Christmas day in a rich neighborhood. Falling in love with an album is an incredible experience and it’s hard not to feel like you’re being spoiled when the band that made that album gives you a second dose of it. REZN released the absolutely incredible Solace in March of 2023, and a mere 15 months later will be giving us Burden. As you may suspect from the similarities in the artwork adorning these two albums, the connection goes deeper. Both albums were actually recorded a month apart in 2021, helping them act as companion pieces rather than simply another new album quickly cranked out by the band. Matt Russell’s fantastic production work similarly helps them act as equals, sharing the same overall sound.
That dynamism and use of space are absolutely still present, but it’s often in shorter doses and buttressed with heaviness more consistently. “Instinct” has some spacy synths and open air, but Phil Cangelosi’s bass rumbles underneath, prefacing the heaviness to come and using his instrument like an ominous omen of what approaches. Not to mention, McWilliams rips out a strong lead that gives the song some emotional heft as well. “Collapse” opens with that patented REZN ethereal nature before smacking the listener with a heavy anvil of a riff a minute in. Spencer Ouellette’s flitting synthesizer notes in the mid-section of the song make it feel like it could be on the soundtrack for a 70’s sci-fi film. Ouellette’s multi-instrumental contributions continue to be a highlight, particularly because of how subtly they color in the songs. Rarely does his work dominate a track, but instead provides textures and layers that help each track have an independent identity among the generally simple heavy riffs. Granted, the sax he plays on “Soft Prey” is as beautiful as it is dissonant while it takes over the song to make it feel uneasy and woozy.
The other way Burden is more direct is in its use of more traditional stoner riffs and moments, while Solace seemed to rarely dip in that direction. Centerpiece, “Bleak Patterns,” starts with a neat little Middle Eastern flair before unleashing a slow doom riff that wouldn’t be inappropriate on a Swallow The Sun album. Soon thereafter, McWilliams throws a Sleep-style riff into the mix, and I swear the guitar tone gets a touch fuzzier as it happens. He even throws in a couple of pitch harmonics to further cement that more traditional heaviness. Similarly, album closer, “Chasm,” is just a straight-up stoner metal song. For essentially the entirety of its 4:36 runtime, the song repeats the same couch-crushing stoner riff that’s impossible not to move your neck to. There are some extra bits of noise thrown in and the song pulls that classic trick of getting louder and louder as it nears its end before sputtering out with static as if it just blew out your speakers. “Chasm” is easily the most straightforward stoner song across the two albums.
I generally try to limit the number of first-person statements I make in a review, but some personal background can provide useful context to this write-up. Last year, I ranked Solace as my number-one album. My experience with REZN up to that point had been fairly limited, so hearing what they put together totally floored me and kept me coming back for more to unveil subtle layers I could get lost in. That album was truly something special for me. That also means I came to Burden with more, and quite frankly, unfair expectations in place. Even though the two albums were essentially recorded simultaneously, it would be unreasonable for me to expect Burden to be on the same level as Solace. That actually has nothing to do with the quality of the album but simply how special of an experience the first one provided me. Has Cryptopsy ever released anything as good as None So Vile? Of course not, but Blasphemy Made Flesh, And Then You’ll Beg and Whisper Supremacy are all fantastic death metal records in their own right.
Burden may not take my top spot this year, but it’s practically guaranteed to make the list somewhere, and I’m really damn glad REZN was kind enough to spoil me with more of something I loved so much.
