Biography

Rylan is a musician working at the intersection of doom metal, orchestral, and experimental music. His work is rooted in distortion and transformation, drawing together extended vocal technique, dense harmonic language, and a fascination with sound as both physical force and emotional rupture.

Under moniker All Men Unto Me, Rylan creates genre-merging work that confronts identity and boundaries, fusing metal, sacred music, and radical vocal practice. Debut album In Chemical Transit (2023) was described by The Wire as “a brave, fascinating, and triumphant view of transition.” Built around the framework of Cherubino’s aria from Le Nozze di Figaro, the record stitched together recordings of Rylan’s voice spanning more than a decade, pre- and mid-transition, interrogating the trouser role, vocal loss, and the violence embedded in classical archetypes.

Sophomore album Requiem (2025) reimagines an ancient mourning in a real, contemporary setting, embracing the broad emotional arcs of the Missa Pro Defunctis. These structures paved the way for new songs, ruminating on patriarchal power systems and the conditions of trans masculinity within them, through the haze of queer reverences and forgiveness. Requiem released via The Larvarium, and received critical acclaim from Bandcamp Daily and The Metal Show on Bandcamp, Stereogum, Metal Hammer (DE), Diffus, Decibel, Distorted Sound, and Echoes and Dust. Brad Sanders described it as “easily one of the best heavy albums as the year…God haunts the album, lurks in its eaves’, adding “it might be the album I’ve spent the most time thinking about this year”. 2025 saw Requiem performed live at PRSF New Music Biennial (Loading Bay, Bradford and Southbank Center, London), and in 2026, a full EU premiere will be performed in full at Roadburn Festival, Tilburg.

Alongside All Men Unto Me, Rylan is the vocalist for avant-metal outfit Ashenspire, performing since 2017 across the UK and EU, including Amplifest, Supersonic, ArcTanGent, Roadburn, Soulcrusher, Northern Winter Beat, Core, DesertFest, Damnation, Islington Assembly Hall (Perpetual Flame Ministries), and various tours. His song How the mighty have vision on record Hostile Architecture (2022) was reviewed by Anthony Fantano as “stunning and dramatic” in the album’s 9/10 review, with live Ashenspire praised by ROCKFLESH as “they are aggressive storytellers, painting a picture of global subjugation and political neglect”.

Rylan’s compositional and performance work extends into chamber, vocal, and orchestral contexts, spanning contemporary classical and cross-disciplinary contexts. He works frequently with Paraorchestra, with orchestral work Straylight commissioned for The Anatomy of the Orchestra: Drone Refractions, premiering at Bristol Beacon during the Association of British Orchestras Conference, with subsequent performances at Southbank Centre and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. His performance of Scott Walker’s The Drift was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and premiered on Sky Arts, with Oliver Vibrans and Pulled by Magnets. He was a Paraorchestra Musician in Residence 2022-23, a former Trustee, and now Assistant Music Director.

Other recent commissions include Gulf for pianist Zubin Kanga with Cyborg Soloists; SISTOR for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival; The Brocken for mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw for And when the light returned, I, transfigured, awoke; There is still a light for The Sunday Boys (setting text from The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven by Jo Clifford at Manchester Cathedral); and small haven for The Night With… and Emma Jane Lloyd.

Rylan holds an MMus and BMus in Composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with The Craig Armstrong Prize and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Composition Prize, supported by The Kenneth Barrett Scholarship from the RCS Trust, The Glasgow Educational and Marshall Trust, and a Dewar Arts Award.