Back in 2016, three long-tenured members of the Chicago metal community got together to form a new instrumental trio. RLYR — pronounced “Relayer” — is Pelican guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, Bloodiest bassist Colin DeKuiper, and Locrian drummer Steven Hess. RLYR released their debut album Delayer in 2016, and they followed it two years later with Actual Existence. Today, RLYR have announced a new self-titled LP that’s coming later this spring. It’ll be the band’s first album in four years.
The five tracks from the new RLYR full-length were mostly written before the pandemic, and RLYR were playing some of them live when they toured back in 2018. During quarantine, though, the band locked in with one another and with the great heavy-music recording engineer Sanford Parker, honing those tracks until they were exactly what the band wanted.
RLYR have shared the six-minute single “Wrack,” a heavy and atmospheric slow-build that’s more post-rock than metal. The track plays around with different time signatures, but it never loses its own head-nod groove. Even if Trevor Shelley de Brauw wasn’t already in Pelican, it would be natural to compare the bottom-heavy swirl of “Wrack” to that band’s work. Below, listen to “Wrack” and check out the RLYR tracklist.
RLYR is out 5/13 on Gilead Media.
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