Nashville underground trio Yautja will make their Relapse Records debut with their new album, The Lurch, set for release May 21. 

Yautja's The Lurch amalgamates metal, punk, and noise rock into a ferocious hybrid that has propelled them from the obscurity of the American South onto the international stage. The Lurch was recorded by Scott Evans at Steve Albini's legendary Electrical Audio studio in Chicago and marks another step forward for the innovative band.

Yautja comments, “We’ve spent a lot of time working on these songs and after sitting on this recording for a clusterfuck pandemic of a year, we couldn’t be more ready to share this with the world.”

The Lurch, which features artwork by Brandon Guerts (Pig Destroyer, Melt Banana), will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Physical preorders are available via Relapse.com. Digital downloads/streaming services are available here.

From the opening roar of “A Killing Joke” and the ominous noise waves of “Undesirables” to the churning cannonade of “Before The Foal,” The Lurch conveys the personal frustrations and sociopolitical observations of its creators. “We’ve got our bubble of friends and artists and businesses, but you drive 30 minutes out of town, and you see confederate flags or people wearing t-shirts that say, ‘Redneck Lives Matter,’” bassist/vocalist Kayhan Vaziri explains, “so there’s a lot of frustration there, and some the lyrics pertain to that.” 

Elsewhere on the album, tracks such as "Tethered" and "Wired Depths" discuss the various technologies and systems in place befalling the great populace. Rampant displacement of local communities fuel Vaziri's opening screams in the track aptly titled “Catastrophic” - “Forced under society!”

Featuring members of several other musical projects including Thou, Coliseum, Mutilation Rites, and more, Yautja's collective experiences across the underground and experimental subgenres drive their unique sound. The band's palpable malaise, malcontent, and sharpened edges are matched by the album's production - the attack of noisy, whirring guitars constantly veering on dissonance are met with a destructive, mangled low end, as they march on to some of the most creative drumming in the genre. The Lurch showcases a band that is daring, experimental, and unrelenting.

Tracklisting:

“A Killing Joke”
“The Spectacle”
“Wired Depths”
“Undesirables”
“Tethered”
“Clock Cleaner”
“Catastrophic”
“The Weight”
“Before The Foal”

“Tethered” video:

(Photo by: Chappy Hull)