The Besnard Lakes return with their sixth album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, after a nearly five-year hiatus. This marks a significant shift for the Montreal psych-rock band, who parted ways with their long-standing label to create a deeply personal and uncompromising 72-minute album. Stripping away any notions of commercial appeal, the album showcases the band’s signature mix of lengthy, atmospheric rock tracks filled with both ethereal beauty and immense, chthonic power. It’s a bold rejection of the mainstream’s quick consumption model, with the band instead crafting a long-form suite that evokes the grandeur of classic rock epics, such as Dark Side of the Moon.

The album’s themes explore the darkness of death and the light beyond, drawing inspiration from Jace Lasek’s personal experience with his father’s passing in 2019. The Besnards spent years shaping this work, incorporating both older, abandoned demos and newly crafted material. The result is a deeply emotional and transcendent journey, blending a raw, distorted sound with moments of brilliant melody and harmony. With its rich, textured soundscapes, The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings stands as a requiem for lost loved ones and a testament to the band’s commitment to authenticity and artistic freedom, offering a psychedelic experience that transcends trends and speaks to the timelessness of human experience.