Pelican - Ascending EP

This EP comprises four tracks that didn’t make it on the final version of Pelican’s brilliant Flickering Resonance record released last year (if you want to check the review for that, it can be found here https://www.jamm-tomorrow.com/album-reviews/pelican-flickering-resonance) . The band – elder statemen of instrumental post-rock/metal - claim the omissions were down to stylistic incongruity rather than quality and Ascending backs that up.

The tracks here are some of Pelican’s heaviest ever. Their riffs are dirty low-end and greasy jams and rubbery, purposeful bass. The title track could be Russian Circles at their grittiest Station era with strident, lurching, bad tempered guitar lines. The concussive crash of Cascading Crescent is heavier still. It’s a bold move indeed for an instrumental band to introduce vocals and thereby remove an element of mystique from their aesthetic. But in this case, Pelican jump in the deep end with pan-fried, caustic screams redolent of Acid Bath or even Thou, with clanging, swampy blues riffs. The band still retain their trademark delicacy in places. Adrift and Tendering the Embers are almost reminiscent of Superunknown-era Soundgarden and indistinguishably meld pensiveness and luminosity, but with a smoky, desert haze and attitude. This EP is a record of self-confident rock where a band are happy to tentatively experiment within managed risk. The tracks are free-flowing yet unhurried with furrow-browed odes to cranking riffs. The rowdier mood would have been less in-keeping with the more nuanced and rounded Flickering Resonance record, so justifies being a stand alone EP.

Here is a link to Pelican’s bandcamp: https://pelican.bandcamp.com/album/ascending-ep