PELICAN Australasia – Vinyl 2xLP (black)

Pressing info : 2022 reissue on black vinyl 2xLP.

As of 2022, digital purchases of Australasia will be the remastered version of the album by Josh Bonati. Vinyl purchases include exclusive bonus remastered tracks, including a remix of Angel Tears by James Plotkin, and live recordings from the era of Australasia’s recording, one of which is a never-before released piece.

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Pelican’s debut album Australasia, originally released in late 2003 by Hydra Head Records, is a landmark record in the shifting tides of heavy music that took place at the turn of the millennium. 20 years since its release and with several sold-out represses, Australasia is a proven essential for any listener exploring the bounds of rock music.

Following the release of the band’s auspicious self-titled EP, Australasia’s singular integration of melodic complexity and tremendous density redefined conceptions of what constituted “heavy.” Pelican’s unique manipulation of atmosphere and dynamics seamlessly alchemized their disparate influences beyond metal into music grand, mercurial, and utterly sublime, worthy of the album’s namesake.

Billowing clouds of strange serenity give way to tectonic riffs. Hypnotic rhythms chug at the precipice between doom and euphoria. Guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec twirl soaring harmonies around the roaring thunder of bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg. Throughout the album, the quartet move as one like a glacier, awesome and forever imbuing the landscape with their mark. Australasia stands as a pioneering work, unmatched in the level of unbridled beauty and devastation Pelican wields across the album.

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