Post-Rockers Pelican Return With New Album + Song

Six long years after releasing Forever Becoming, Pelican are back with a dark, emotive new record titled Nighttime Stories. Get your first taste with the new single "Midnight and Mescaline" below.

The instrumental quartet again strike a balance between uplifting passages and oppressive atmosphere. This one is a bit more direct and hard-hitting than some of their other works, opening with a head-bobbing guitar lick and propulsive groove.

"I feel like the music we make, and particularly this record, I feel like a lot of the chord voicings and the way the songs are structured are very discordant, and maybe more menacing and negative sounding than Pelican has been in the past," guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw told The Fader in an interview about the forthcoming record.

"I know that, obviously, we’re a metal band, which has always been part of the DNA, but at one point in press materials, we referred to ourselves as 'a triumphant band' or something, because we were much more into this expression of hope — which we still are, but I think this particular set of material sounds dark and negative because there’s a purging quality to these songs," he continued. "We’re collecting our negativity in this musical zone and pushing it out as a positive release. It’s a catharsis. So, I think it’s a positive emotion of just getting this negativity out of us. That’s also why the record resolves in this calm, mellow place, because the purging has happened."

The title was originally intended for Tusk, a band which shared, at one time, three members of Pelican alongside singer Jody Minnoch. After Minnoch's passing in 2014, Tusk was put aside and Pelican retained the title along with some of Minnoch's other notes for Tusk and repurposed them for this new album.

Nighttime Stories is set for a June 7 release through Southern Lord Recordings. Pre-order the record here and look for the Record Store Day exclusive 7" "Midnight and Mescaline" single containing the B-side "Darkness on the Stairs."

See the album art and track listing beneath the song at the bottom of the page as well Pelican's upcoming tour dates.

Pelican, Nighttime Stories Album Art + Track Listing

1. "WST"
2. "Midnight and Mescaline"
3. "Abyssal Plain"
4. "Cold Hope"
5. "It Stared at Me"
6. "Nighttime Stories"
7. "Arteries of Blacktop"
8. "Full Moon, Black Water"

Pelican 2019 North American Tour Dates

6/20 — Ferndale, Mich. @ Loving Touch w/ Greet Death
6/21 — Toronto, Ontario @ Lee's Palace
6/22 — Montreal, Quebec @ Bar de Ritz
6/23 — Boston, Mass. @ Great Scott
6/24 — Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Bazaar w/ Planning For Burial
6/25 — Philadelphia, Pa. @ Boot & Saddle w/ Planning For Burial
6/26 — Baltimore, Md. @ Ottobar
6/27 — Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Club Café
6/28 — Cincinnati, Ohio @ Northside Yacht Club
6/29 — Chicago, Ill. @ Metro w/ Young Widows

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