Unknowingly stranded in pursuit of curious phenomenon, an experimental settlement conducts its research on an uncharted planet riddled with bioluminescent life seemingly capable of interstellar and interspecies communication. Awash with superradiant emissions in a wide band, pulses surfacing from the planet litter its face with shipwrecks from all over the galaxy unidentifiable by these doomed scientists beyond their demarcation by a yet indecipherable code. The outcome, a multi-extrasensory realization that the planet itself is the organism is transformative to say the least. Pairing the pointedly atmospheric vision of Chicago-based psychedelic doom metal band Rezn with the cinema-minded storytelling of Mexico City-based drone/doom group Vinnum Sabbathi ‘Silent Future‘ is a collaborative concept album aiming to explore their collective vision of science-fictive cosmic horror narrative. Developing an experimental settlement of their own, we find these ten psych-doom ‘nauts adrift in the possibilities yet coming together for a deeply immersive, inventive half hour+ feature of each crew’s shared strengths.

Finding some collective parity of frequency after having played a show together in the past it’d seem the folks behind the decidedly atmospheric psychedelic doom of Rezn were impressed enough with the Vinnum Sabbathi experience, a stoner/doom metal riffing and droning sort of instrumental band with voice samples delineating sci-fi stories, to have bookmarked ’em for this collab. No doubt ‘Of Dimensions & Theories‘ (2020) left a lot of folks holding a finger to the pulse of Vinnum Sabbathi yet the average listener has likely shown up for this record keen to link up with Rezn per the fresher-in-memory status of their latest full-length (‘Solace‘, 2023) which I would count as one of the better records in its style this year. That said I’d frankly not been expecting much from a collaboration, not just this one but collabs in general due to the compromise that inevitably arises when two groups collide, that level of cooperation either gels or it doesn’t. In this case it works because each band shares a similar atmospheric drift in their approach, both tend to bring big riffs when called for, and the singular voice from Rezn‘s Rob McWilliams allows ‘Silent Future‘ to read with seamless, unified directive — a proper modern psychedelic doom metal record above all else.

Narrated by the spoken word of Manuel Wohlrab, who’d also featured on ‘Of Dimensions & Theories‘, the general concept here will have to reveal itself through careful listening and interpretation of the lyrics otherwise but the general tone is an adventure into the unknown, a combination of beauty and dread which Rezn have become quite well known for conjuring. Reasonably likened to groups like Elephant Tree and Windhand for their spaced and otherworldly gloom respectively the bones of ‘Silent Future‘ takes that core Rezn sound and doses it with prog and space rock adjacent layering which weighs in heaviest in between heavier guitar driven sections. Opener “Unknown Ancestor” best emphasizes this trade-off between the narrative, the luminescent verve, and a growling-hot guitar tone as it conveys a dreary but not damned tonality. Perhaps just as impressive as the amount of details worth pecking through on the full listen, the flow of album from piece to piece is especially rife with ease and interrelated parts. The step from “Unknown Ancestor” into “The Cultigen” not only communicates a second scene but carries the groove through for a more downtempo piece which ends up being one of the more memorable pieces of the lot.

A rare elevation event. — The major outcome of so many hands pooling their ideas is a comfortable lushness, a busy feeling which tends right at the edge of sensory overload as synth-guided landscapes give short windows into this album’s narrative while bigger space-cased doom metal pieces provide the muscle and the movement enough to keep ‘Silent Future‘ from landing too passive or sleepy. Echoing many of the melodic strengths found on ‘Solace‘ but perhaps firing off a bigger, stonier plate of riffs in some cases pieces like “Hypersurreal” and “Morphing” are perhaps the best ‘face’ of Rezn for the unindoctrinated, not to downplay the other contributions to these pieces but I’d felt like these were big, exaggerated songs which emphasized their skill of songcraft and general use of restraint within a sub-genre/headspace where excess and overloading on repetition tend to be the norm. The sluggish space rock bassline and uprising groove of “Morphing” particularly shines as a late-album peak.

Of course I could go on, closer “Obliterating Mists” showcases the range of both artists at a stunning collaborative peak, but it’d suffice to say that those seeking surreal psychedelic doom, downtempo grooves and synth-juiced eerie will be well served herein and without a major clash of ideas to be found between the two entities involved. Though one’d be well justified in expecting a collaborative album to be a bit of a gimmick or low-tier cast off material circa 2023 these folks have managed to accentuate one another on a release which finds them complimentary both in style and in their call for a unique sense of storytelling applied to their craft. A high recommendation.

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