Pelican is mostly an infallible band, to me at least. It’s an acquired taste to many rocker & metalhead friends despite me buying extra copies of their albums and sneaking it into their hands. Their Untitled EP is something that I had been looking for my whole life at that point, and I’ve been on board with pretty much everything of theirs since then.

“Pretty much” I’ll leave out what I’ve not been excited about despite repeated listens, which remain on my mp3 player still. I joke that it’s just droning slow guitar riffs but that’s not the case. They’re a (mostly) instrumental band described as “post-metal,” a term I hate. I guess if you’re too cool to admit publicly that Carcass’ Heartwork is the best form of music, but someone finds a copy in your collection, you can be all “well I’m deconstructing heavy metal, that’s why I listen to that stuff, not because it’s got the best wall of noise guitar sound over some deep beefy riffs.” (I imagine this is the conversation embarrassed hipsters who like metal have every other day, I don’t know.) Pelican’s music ranges from punishingly heavy (Untitled EP), occasionally blistering fast (the not as great Nighttime Stories), and often spacy to the point of introspective to give your neck a break from headbanging (The Fire In Our Throats Beckon The Thaw).

The was a period where founding member and (I believe) lead music writer Laurent Lebec left the band, which was rough to imagine them without considering how fantastic The Fire In Our Throats (2005) and City Of Echoes (2007) were. Nervously I bought Forever Becoming, the first Pelican album without him, and it immediately ended up as one of my favorites. He rejoined Pelican recently to which they recorded their latest, Flickering Resonance. It opens with “Gulch,” which is less a repetitive back & forth between solo guitar line and the crushing presence of the band then a feeling of total triumph. Like, who are we marching to beat up and who’s the boss? The boss is Pelican, by the way.

“Evergreen” sort of expands on the theme from Gulch and the album becomes an extension of those “middle” years of Pelican. More heavy riffs like from City of Echoes (“Indelible”), plenty of somber moments that still sound dreamy when the band picks up the volume (“Flickering Stillness.” The album ends on a song called “Wandering Mind” which is perfectly what that song and the entire album are for.

I don’t think it’s fair to call it a ‘return to form’ because there was nothing wrong with the progression from the last few albums – they all feel different, but this is a nice step somewhere between The Fire In Our Throats & City of Echoes. I also feel like this is a pretty good introduction to the band, if you haven’t heard them. You can pick it up on bandcamp, here. I say highly recommended, but I’m biased. If you’re familiar with them, then “more of the same” or “in this particular vein” is pretty awesome. If you don’t know them, this is a good album to check out! (see below)

I was lucky to see them a couple times when they reunited and just before they went into the studio to record this material – they performed it at G-Men Tavern in Chicago, and then two or so weeks later at Metro opening for Russian Circles. So it was pretty nice to hear this stuff beforehand.

If you’ve NOT heard Pelican before, I say check this out and also The Fire In Our Throats Beckons The Thaw. I think …Fire… is a great intro to their spectrum of heavy music. I recommend getting stuff on bandcamp because, unless I’m seriously misinformed, this is usually the best deal for bands. Also this particular version comes with some interesting demos, especially “Red Amber.”

I say keep clicking around; please note they have TWO bandcamps, one of which is for their previous record label, which has Forever Becoming, another album I recommend. I recommend them all, don’t be picky.

Okay, I have a LOT of old timey film noir movies to watch this weekend and write up. Haven’t done a movie review in a while!