In '99, the band released a four-song EP, dlry, on their own Dirigible Recordings imprint, which displayed a newborn taking its first breaths, determined to create its own distinct identity. A debut LP, Speak It Not Aloud (My Pal God, 2001), found them molding a vocabulary of sonic lyricism and rhythmic textuality into concise, coherent compositions. On the subsequent Darkness & Distance LP (My Pal God, 2003), this lexicon coalesced into densely plotted tales of dynamic tension & release, where breakbeat armadas battled with ethereal volume swells, and shimmering keyboards mingled juices with crushing walls of guitar. And they lived happily ever after.

In September 2006, Del Rey returned with A Pyramid for the Living, featuring their most epic and aggressive storytelling to date. The album is a cosmic opus that reveals a stronger, wiser group maneuvering at will through its own unique soundscape. Building on the post-rock and electronic roots from which the band's sound springs, here the sonic palette also contains hints of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Afro-Cuban textures. Added to their already impressive arsenal of furious double-drumming, stinging guitar work, and mesmerizing electronics, these elements are deftly woven into songs that take on a life of their own.

Del Rey continues to perform in Chicago and across the nation. Live, the music is infused with a feverish urgency, each song played like it could be their last. The signature of the group's shows is the symbiotic intricacy of their twin-drumkit attack, which manages to be punishing yet graceful at the same time.

'Building tension layer by layer, the percussion-driven Del Rey merges the skills of two incredible drummers with shimmering guitarwork and electronics, carving out snaking, hypnotic soundscapes with dream-like logic and nonchalant deliberation. Polyrhythms collide in precision, textures metamorphose into each other, blank minds give way to cohesive imagery - running down the middle of an empty street in a futuristic Blade Runner-like world - intense light and warmth pouring down upon the ordinarily dark and dreary.'

- Skyscraper

DEL REY is a heavy instrumental post-rock quartet that was formed in Chicago in 1997. Rather than the typical post-rock sound, Del Rey offer more of an amalgam of different genres, including punk, psychedelic rock, and even electronic. Each member of the band is a multi-instrumentalist, which adds to the complexity of their sound. They often use two drummers when playing live. Their sound is highly dynamic, but lacks the loud-soft-loud predictability of MOGWAI. Instead, they focus on melody, in fact they often focus on several at a time, opting to layer different guitar sounds to create their own brand of thick, dramatic instrumental rock. DEL REY released their first EP in 1999, entitled "dlry", and followed it with their debut LP "Speak it Not Loud" in 2001. Their sound continued to grow with 2003’s "Darkness & Distance", and 2006’s "A Pyramid for the Living". They continue to create sweeping instrumental rock that never ceases to experiment in both drama and subtlety, always creating new combinations of rhythm, melody and texture. Their live shows have also been extensively praised for their intensity and emotion.

-Prog Archives.com

Weaving through the occasional Eastern tone, A Pyramid For The Living builds to menace (”A Brief Strangle”) without manical, primitive blasts or unruly guitar solos. The album is constant, soul-crushing pressure, like being pursued in a 14-year-old Mazda by a tractor-trailer.

-Illinois Entertainer

Del Rey is an explosive instrumental band from Chicago that rock such crazy time-changing rhythms they need two drummers to pull off their math-rockian feats of hectic cadence. The band started back in 1997 and it's apparent even from the very first listen that these guys are craftsmen of their instruments. In other words, they're really, really tight. It would be easy for tempo exploits such as these to sound messy and muddled from a band that didn't know any better, but Del Rey have been at mastering this for a decade and definitely have it down. Their songs slowly and surely build towards wonderful crashes of climactic release.

-Oh My Rockness