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PREMIERE: Get Mesmerized by Bloodiest’s New Track, “Mezmerize”

Stream the Chicago noise-meet-metal collective's new album’s opening track, and enter Bloodiest’s darkened world.

Photo by John Sturdy

In a city saturated with innovative heavy music, Chicago’s Bloodiest offers an eclectic sonic palette that bears the stamp of its hometown on its sleeve while forging new musical terrain. The group formed in the late 2000s as an assembly of friends and scene veterans (including current and former members of Yakuza, 90 Day Men, Atombombpocketknife, and Follows) and by the release of its 2011 debut, Descent (Relapse Records), had become a staple of the local music community and beyond for its unwieldy combination of underground rock, avant-garde, classical, neofolk, drone, and metal. Though the band has since undergone some turbulence and lineup shifts, it has emerged stronger than ever in a six-person attack of vocalist Bruce Lamont, guitarists Tony Lazzara and Eric Chaleff, bassist Colin DeKuiper, pianist/keyboardist Nandini Khaund, and drummer Cayce Key.

Nowhere is that strength more evident than on Bloodiest’s eponymous second album, due out January 15, 2016 on Relapse. Produced by Sanford Parker and Tony Lazzara, the record takes a step beyond Descent’s murky experimentations into a tighter, more focused, and moodier vision that embraces a wide spectrum of emotion from sorrow to ecstasy.

With its mix of tension-filled riffs, dark romanticism, and menacing ambience, topped off with Bruce’s dynamic vocals, the album’s opening track, “Mesmerize,” is perhaps the perfect jumping-off point into Bloodiest’s darkened world. Check it out below and get stoked for the full album next year—CD/vinyl preorders are now available from Relapse, and digitally from the band itself.