Pelican - Nighttime Stories

Angry Metal Guy

I suppose I’m a fan of the Chicago post-metal scene: I’ve got plenty of Pelican and Russian Circles albums, and was lucky enough to see the latter live last year (which, when you live where I do, is a minor miracle). Pelican haven’t been on the same trajectory as their cousins, though, but it’s not completely their fault. Life gets in the way sometimes, and many things happened to these guys since their last full-length, 2013’s Forever Becoming. The biggest catalyst for the writing of Nighttime Stories was the death of Tusk vocalist Jody Minnoch in 2014.¹ In fact, the album title was originally supposed to be a Tusk album title, and several song titles also come from Minnoch’s notes. But that’s to be expected following tragic circumstances. Our hopes here are for the band to channel all that emotion into some compelling material.

Pelican’s last two albums have both been compelling entries in the post-metal genre, and lucky for me, there are no vocals to compare between then and now: just music.² The music here is both more aggressive and more subtle than on the previous records. Don’t think that’s possible? It is. The bulk of the tracks are gritty and muscular. Pelican hit their ideas hard. “Arteries of Blacktop” seems doomy to start but rolls into a gloriously frantic pace. Lead single “Midnight and Mescaline” is an angry beast, with numerous stops and starts, killer bass lines, and a terrific arrangement featuring a number of ideas. And “Cold Hope” is a turgid and ponderous number that features crushing riffs and angular yet simple lead breaks.

The delicate moments are equally enjoyable. “Full Moon, Black Water” is the longest song at eight minutes (with its beautiful ending, it’s the perfect way to close the album), and is ripe with atmosphere, opening with subdued acoustic guitar and a forlorn, tragic feel until midway through, when the riffing gets heavy and the doom is real. It’s a grinding song that rewards patience with numerous riffs scattered amongst the chugs. “It Stared at Me” may have the most potential of all the material here, with its deliciously atmospheric riff and dreamy rhythm, but see the next paragraph for why this is actually a disappointment.

I’ve spoken glowingly of Nighttime Stories thus far, but there are still flaws. Not in the production: sure, the mastering job may be slightly heavy-handed, but that doesn’t take away from the percussive power and monstrous bass tone. There are dynamics where they need to be, making the album an enjoyable listen in that regard. But not every song hits the mark. Opening track “WST” is an intro, but do we really need that on an instrumental album? Not when it stands in stark contrast to the feel of most of the other songs. And “It Stared at Me” is equally short, which is disappointing because the nucleus of the song is so good we want it to coalesce into something amazing, but it just ends. These two misses leave Nighttime Stories with room for improvement.

Forever Becoming and What We all Come to Need both flirted with Very Good status in my books, and Nighttime Stories nudges just past that demarcation. This is overall an emotional, visceral, elemental album that hits the gritty post-metal sweet spot more often than not. Pelican can be proud of the end product here, knowing that with some fine-tuning a masterpiece is well within their reach next time out. They’ve always played on the gritty, dark, and heavy side of the post-metal spectrum, and the effect of losing a close friend has weighted the music further in that direction, with strong results.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Southern Lord
Websites: pelican.bandcamp.com | pelicansong.com | facebook.com/pelicansong
Releases Worldwide: June 7th, 2019

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The Quietus

Forgive me if I've taken some issues with Pelican over the years, whilst still finding their Big Riff Energy thoroughly enjoyable. Beloved stalwarts of the experimental metal scene, they've only ever really tinkered with their sound, and whilst this has never been unsuccessful per se, they always lacked the cut and thrust of their peers in Russian Circles, Isis or Neurosis. Their drawn-out riffs, chunky textures and twinkly sections are expertly balanced but they've rarely made brave, arresting, vital music, trading on pretty much the same ideas for the last decade or so.

There's nothing wrong with this. Pelican helped pioneer their style and have tightened their distinct voice. Even if they don't lean towards weirder, wilder stuff, they have the sense to write fun, memorable riffs, energetic and high-energy even when they lean towards the frostier, as they clearly did on the reserved Forever Becoming .

So: on their first LP in six years, Pelican have settled on a goth phase.

On Nighttime Stories, Pelican have embraced an especially unsubtle darkness, expressed through some trad goth tropes; creepy chords, tremolo picking straight from the black metals, gloomy textures and some post-punk textures. With some lush modern production this feels throaty, immediate and vital in a way their early stuff doesn't, and is surprisingly busy for a band who were always happy to rest on their long, lush riffs.

What's especially cool is that they run a gauntlet of cool goth sounds and techniques; they lurk, they strike, the guitars crunch and wallow, the tracks are alternatively mercilessly swift or mournful and lugubrious. This is a complete change of mood to everything they've produced previously, for the better; here they sound alive and excited to be playing. It's encouraging to note that everything hangs together very well, strung together by the imperious guitars.

Some highlights include the thunderous opening of 'Cold Hope' which explodes into a menacing dirge, the delay-heavy 'WST' which recalls fields of the Nephilim's big-hatted gloom and the delicate, swoopy 'It Stared At Me'. The stacks of pitch-perfect riffs – Pelican's greatest export – are still front and centre, just with a new fringe.

It's weird to see a band so set into their aesthetic lurch violently out of socket. In this case, it's very pleasing to observe, and especially satisfying when Pelican could so easily have phoned this in. It's especially good that this is a success because we need something to tide us over until Halloween (146 days and counting).

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Pitchfork 76

The instrumental metal quartet’s first album in six years grapples directly with loss and grief, channeling dueling guitars and pummeling rhythms into a dire, haunted sound.