Review: Rwake – The Return of Magik

March 3, 2025

926

It’s a kind of Magik

Coming out of Little Rock, Arkansas is Rwake, who have been around since the late ’90s doing their own take on sludge/doom, similar in form to the likes of Neurosis and Kylesa. Throughout their years, they have grown to experiment with their sound in later albums, giving themselves their own personality with an atmospheric edge. After 2011’s Rest, they are now back over 10 years later with their 6th album, The Return of Magik.

Rwake starts up this album with “You Swore We’d Always Be Together,” which shows the band’s versatility and range throughout this 8-minute track, from the nicely chilled acoustic intro to the dual vocals of Chris Terry & Brittany Fugate. Also, the low and slow, atmospheric sludge riffs are gracefully followed up by a nice solo from their new lead guitarist, Austin Sublett. All of this got me hooked in from the start as it has similar vibes to why I enjoy listening to a band like Amenra but with Rwake’s own charm & personality.

The title track, “The Return to Magik” goes straight into the heavy deep end with the drumming and savage vocal delivery driving its force at the beginning of this track. The guitars also blend in together well delivering well-executed dual riffs. Also, there’s an interesting form of spoken word/shouting from Chris Terry in there too, making for a hard hitter of a song. This is followed up by “With Stardust Flowers” that continues the momentum and style that the previous song had. Rwake does stick to their own style throughout this album, but they thrive in it and know how to execute it well.

The more progressive and spacier side of Rwake is best shown through the longest song on the album, “Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration.” This one shows off more range in both their vocalists; Chris will go into spoken word territory while Brittany does clean vocals and it works well. I like the way it starts off light then progresses on through to get heavier; the guitarists do a great job in displaying this with their riffs.

The Return to Magik finishes off on a high with “In After Reverse;” one of the best parts of this song is the more folky vibes from the guitars. This is for me one of the strongest parts in that they blend well the sludgy riffs with atmospheric, folky sections—reminding me of some of my favorite black metal. This is followed up by the outro named “Φ” that concludes the band’s 6th effort nicely.

Overall, this is such a good comeback from the band after over 10 years and doesn’t feel like they missed a beat. While it’s Rwake certainly in their comfort zone, the execution of their sound throughout this album is up there with similar bands of their ilk, such as Amenra and Cult of Luna. The dual vocal delivery as well as the new lead guitarist have done a great job in giving the band’s sound a fresh coat of paint. Listening to the album reminded me why I like the sounds of atmospheric sludge metal and it’s certainly one for fans of the genre to check out.