Pelican: Flickering Resonance
DL | LP | CD
Released on 16th May 2025
Six years after their last full-length effort, experimental rock veterans Pelican return with their seventh studio album—an anthem to hope and emotional release.
It’s intriguing how being recognised by many fans and critics as a long-standing post-metal institution can be both a fitting honor and a subtly restrictive label.
Since their acclaimed debut album Australasia (Hydra Head Records, 2003), the Chicago quartet Pelican has, more or less consciously, prioritised circumventing genre-imposed stylistic boundaries—an approach that has consistently enabled them to explore rich textural possibilities while avoiding the clichés that have come to saturate post-rock landscapes in recent years.
That spirit of resistance and reinvention remains intact on Flickering Resonance, which arrives with a sense of freshness and renewed creative freedom—likely sparked by the return of guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. After rejoining the band for live performances in 2022, Schroeder-Lebec soon reentered the writing process alongside Trevor de Brauw (guitar), Bryan Herweg (bass), and Larry Herweg (drums), resulting in the first studio release from the original lineup since 2009’s What We All Come to Need.
This new work flows seamlessly, with each of its eight tracks leaning heavily on the interplay and layering of meticulously carved guitar licks—true to the band’s enduring aesthetic, whose brightest and most hopeful side shines more vividly here than in previous efforts.
A nostalgic yet unexpectedly joyful mood, set by the album’s first and shortest track, Gulch, pervades its 51-minute runtime. Yet this emotional uplift never comes at the expense of weight, as Pelican continue to embrace their signature sludgy riffs—masterfully executed on tracks like Evergreen, Specific Resonance, and Cascadian Crescent, the latter standing out as one of the album’s most organic compositions.
The record’s central stretch delivers some of its most compelling moments—calm before and after the storm. Clean, washed-out arpeggios and reversed delays invite introspection, offering space to breathe between the heavier passages. These textures emerge as hypnotic slowdowns—as in Pining For Ever—or as ever-shifting melodic descents that dissolve into crushing, stoner-inflected riffs.
Worth noting is Larry Herweg’s ever-precise drumming, which propels the outro of Flickering Stillness, while his brother Bryan’s bass lines anchor both the opening and closing movements of the final track, Wandering Mind, brilliantly framing its enigmatic build-up and release.
It goes without saying: the most captivating aspect of Pelican’s work lies in their ability to make music feel as instinctive as it is meticulously crafted. Flickering Resonance stands as yet another pristine display of the band’s gift for shaping instrumental movements that defy rigid structure while achieving a remarkably cohesive form. It may not deliver many surprises, but it offers exactly what one hopes for in a Pelican album: a masterful journey through elegant sonic rawness.
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All words by Giovanni Trovato, you can find his author’s archive here
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