Check Out the New Yautja Album, The Lurch

The Lurch, the long-awaited Relapse Records debut from Nashville experi-metal trio Yautja, is here, and it’s my favorite study in thoughtful brutality since Kowloon Walled City’s Grievances in 2015 — the Bay Area band whose singer-guitarist Scott Evans, maybe not coincidentally, produced The Lurch. My Scene colleague P.J. Kinzer called Yautja’s new nine-song LP the best heavy album to come out of Middle Tennessee in 20 years (with the possible exception of Loss’ funeral-doom masterwork Horizonless). Yautja works slowly — there have been EPs, splits and other short-form releases, but this is only the group’s second full-length in its decade together — but an end product this considered shows why. From the energy in the performances to the expertly sculpted riffs, loose-cannon drumming and Evans’ raw, powerful recording (he and the band rendezvoused in Chicago to track at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio, and it paid off), The Lurch has all the je ne sais quoi of a heavy-music classic. Stream it at yautja.bandcamp.com and order the LP directly from Relapse: store.relapse.com/item/98012. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN