REVIEW: Son Of Boar return with crushing new single U.F.O.
Tusks up! Bradfordian stoner doom titans Son of Boar return this week with the storming new single U.F.O.
Son of Boar are on fine form with their first new track since Satanic Panic (Revelations) a couple of years ago. No less than twelve minutes of monolithic riff worship, to put it bluntly, it's spacey and heavy as fuck throughout and doesn't so much announce their return but scream it from the top of a mountain. A holy mountain, perhaps.
In the band's own words, U.F.O. is a vagabond’s tale of fungal experimentation. The song seeks to take listeners on a journey through the honest retelling of youthful exploration, while channelling feelings of impending doom, confusion, and wonder. Producer Kurt Wood has helped the band find and focus their sound, delivering cacophonous drums from Luke Doran, paired with the thunder-flow of Gaz Bates' bass playing. Both form the sturdy foundations upon which a wall of guitar sounds is built by Lyndon Birchall and Adam Waddell, all to provide backing to vocalist Luke Oliver’s signature rusted-iron voice.
It's heavy, sure, and its dramatic opening batters at the eardrums as all the rhythms lock in together. Midway through, there's a caveman-style rhythmic pummeling that harks back to this too - but their style of heaviness is grandiose, towering and surprisingly graceful, rather than brute force. The balance between weight and subtlety becomes clearer as the song plays out.
The verse chords ring out with weight, repeating like a mantra. As the riff cycles around and around and Luke Oliver barks out each lyric, the song quickly takes on a storytelling quality, as if each line is another chapter in a long, gradually unfolding hallucinogenic tale. After a drum-led break, the interlude offers a breather, with shimmering, lysergic clean guitars, understated yet powerful before the trip marches on.
Son of Boar's sense of dynamics stands out. They know exactly when to dial it back, letting atmosphere wash over, and when to crash forward with force. The song's heavy second half has a gradual build of more hypnotic phrases that drag the listener deeper before the tempo slows into a titanic crawl. Before the end of the trip, a feedback-drenched solo wails over the top, adding a sense of chaos, as Luke Doran dictates the slooooooow pace with control and power, driving U.F.O. into the dirt as its final groove dies away.
The artwork is a clear tribute to Sabbath's Vol. 4 - all the more topical right now - the sonic imprint of the era stamped all over this track as much as everything Son of Boar have done before. Here, they sound as crushing and hypnotic as ever. Excitingly, by the band's account, this is only the beginning, with an album and a half's worth of material already waiting in the wings.
For fans of Sabbath, Sleep and space. Huge stuff.
MN
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