Every few years, Chicago’s storied, genre-mashing metal outfit Immortal Bird migrates back into the studio to weave a prickly yet embracing sort of nest. Their new album, October’s Sin Querencia (20 Buck Spin), is their first full-length since 2019’s Thrive on Neglect, and its arrival suggests a band who like to take their time at their craft. The group have scaled down from a four-piece to a three-piece in the studio, and the assured feel of the new material shows that vocalist Rae Amitay, guitarist Nate Madden, and drummer Matt Korajczyk are collaborators who know each other’s minds.
They recorded the album with Pete Grossmann at Bricktop Recording, with all three members playing bass parts (and Amitay adding keyboard and synth). It opens with “Bioluminescent Toxins,” which plays like a multichapter story; it’s raw, dank, and aggressive, and it cracks open in the middle to let the light through with lilting, clean vocals before brutally slamming shut. Immortal Bird are a band with so many ideas they can blow through them promiscuously or turn on a dime, and on Sin Querencia there isn’t a dull or wasted moment. The pummeling, churning riff of “Propagandized” fades into the inexorable tsunami surge of “Ocean Endless,” which relentlessly shifts through startling tempo changes and abrupt twists and turns. The rhythm section really shines bright, and the starkly angular title track is bolstered by a nimble, rubbery bass line from Kayhan Vaziri (Coliseum, Yautja), Amitay’s bandmate in the duo Wretched Blessing. (Vaziri has also been providing additional thunder to Immortal Bird as their live bassist.)
“Sin querencia” essentially means to be without a place where one feels safe, and this album evokes the dread of a world where fascism appears to be creeping at every corner. But perhaps paradoxically, its heavy, dark music is compelling and inviting enough to become a querencia in itself, where outside pressures match the pressures within, evoking a sense of catharsis that brings relief.On Facebook, Immortal Bird have warned that this Reggies release party will be their last local show for quite a while—now that Sin Querencia is out, they plan to play a few gigs here and there and with any luck embark on some major tours next year. This stacked bill also includes Indianapolis death-doom outfit Mother of Graves, Lake County hardcore band Payasa, and Chicago blackened thrash unit Apophy.
Immortal Bird Mother of Graves, Payasa, and Apophy open. Sat 11/23, 8 PM, Reggies Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $25, $20 in advance, 17+