REVIEW: Boss Keloid unveil new era with Float & Aperture

I've admired Boss Keloid for around a decade, and they've changed, grown and metamorphosised in that time as much as I have. After seeing them at Bloodstock 2016 as a wide-eyed (and vaguely red-eyed) youngster during the Herb Your Enthusiasm era, I completely fell in love with Melted On The Inch in 2018, which remains an all-timer in my books. Boss Keloid were a little lighter on the ears than before, but still with the uniquely weighty riffs that define their sound, alongside a slightly revamped brand of off-kilter proggy sludge, pushing their melodies even harder. Family The Smiling Thrush continued that Primus-meets-Melvins evolution in 2021, which I wrote about at the time. You can check out a memorable interview with Boss Keloid and Tuskar I carried out in Sheffield when both bands were on the road together around the back end of that year (below). Make sure you watch out for the question about who has the best beard...

There's been more of a gap between albums than before leading up to this week's Float & Aperture, over five years on from Family. In that time, Boss Keloid have shed some of their stoner/sludge skin for a take on prog rock that is - generally speaking - a little mellower and calmer. Now, this is still very much a Boss Keloid album. It's got all the expected weirdness and quirky guitar lines we know by now. There are plenty of dark harmonic undercurrents running throughout the album. Ste Arands' unmistakable sense of groove and flow, despite the jaunty rhythms, keeps the record ticking. And Alex Hurst leads the charge with lyrics about the human experience, delivered with his full, rich vocal croon.

Says the band, “We wanted to challenge ourselves and each other more than ever during the writing process for this album, and developed a completely new way of working together as a result. Our writing process was more collaborative, experimental, and challenging than ever. We encouraged each other to tap into our musical and personal influences, as well as life experiences to generate ideas. We wanted more focus and enjoyment around the interplay and dynamics between melody and rhythm, and a better clarity and balance between our instruments and parts”.

Opener Breeze wastes no time in settling into a quirky groove from the album's first notes. Twisted and dissonant, it's familiar territory to lull the listener in. The drop into the verse gets interesting, though, as it sounds much more summery and light than what we've heard before on a Boss Keloid album. Its soft, gentle chords give a relaxed backing to Hurst's lyrics about connection with others. The song weaves through different sections, with a somewhat nostalgic air to them, building the song up gradually in intensity before returning to sit on the intro riff. This groove is one of the song's 'heaviest' moments, but the gain is rolled back compared to older albums, giving the guitars a crisper tone and allowing their odd note choices to come through with real deliberation, definition and precision.

The song morphs into Pedestal, the album's second single. It has dark harmonic undertones early on that signal a change in energy as it kicks in. But the song eases back into lighter, more hopeful territory fairly quickly, even making room for a dreamy falsetto vocal hook. Towards the end, the song evolves into an atonal pattern that wouldn't be out of place on Herb Your Enthusiasm, but again, with the instruments still dialled back. This helps to emphasise how the song moves about harmonically. From section to section, Boss Keloid flit from scale to scale within the same root key to dictate the changes in mood and atmosphere, from sinister to sunny (and back again) within one song. I mean, who else does that so convincingly?

Lead single Landslide pushes the record to even bigger soundscaping. Soft guitar chords back contemplative lyrics and Paul Swarbrick's distinctive guitar phrasing before they turn the guitars up for an uplifting, powerful chorus - or as close as they get to those typical song structures. Boss Keloid use a warm overdrive on the rhythm guitars pretty sparingly and deliberately, but when kicked in, it really lifts the music. Landslide's final couple of minutes sound particularly 'big' for this reason. It's not necessarily heavier or fuzzier than anything they've done before, but in the context of the album, feels like a high point.

Most of Float & Aperture uses softer instrumental tones, even at its 'heaviest', and that may not be to everyone's taste. However, this makes those heavy moments more powerful than when the default is firmly at eleven. There is almost a carefree, surf rock influence to the way the clean guitars are typically dialled in. This ties in nicely with Hurst's lyrics about the ocean in this song, and even the album art, which is a step away from the stoner psychedelia of Melted and Family. For an album that has so much going on, it's surprisingly cohesive, with each note, melody and lyric playing a defined role.

At almost ten minutes long, Weight sits as the album's centrepiece. One of the most ambitious compositions they've tracked to date, it begins with moody clean guitars as Hurst's lyrics reflect an inner struggle. Eventually nudging the tempo up for a new passage, the band break into a heavier section that continually builds intensity. They really flex their creative muscles with an atonal lead guitar break and some inventive wah-led riffs. Weight evolves constantly, barely sitting still with a flowing instrumental break that eventually brings the listener home to where the song began. If that wasn't enough, the band drop into an irresistible swung beat as Hurst croons 'I'm gonna find my way' with gentle optimism. Eventually, the song closes with acoustic guitars and delicate guitar melodies. This one's a real trip. Crucially, it never feels like 'riff soup', but a prog rock journey with more to unravel on each listen.

Aros drives the band into melodic territory as it begins, gradually easing into more unsettling, dissonant ground with wailing guitar leads. The off-time rhythms and grooves stand out in this one, with Arands' relaxed but creative beats holding the arrangement together nicely. The final minute even includes some reggae guitar stabs, not really heard from this band since 2018's 'Peykruve', showing the breadth of their wide range of influences. Where else does reggae and Primus-induced weirdness come together but in this band?

Liam Pendlebury-Green takes centre stage for the intro of Accord with a fantastic bass tapping lick. He is given a couple of moments to shine at the front of the mix in this track, but without stealing the limelight completely. It's a great example of how Boss Keloid are technical and complex, but never wanky on their instruments. At no point on this record does showmanship get in the way of pocket, taste and feel. This track has a couple of sludgy Melvins-esque breaks that will please some of their old-school following, allowing Hurst to roar his lyrics over the top. Of the songs on Float & Aperture, it's probably closest in flavour to their last couple of records.

Sanguine closes the album, bringing the journey to an end with contemplative yet positive lyrics and a bit of sonic heft. Arands drops a rock groove to get the heads nodding away, its off-time count giving it a bit of a Soundgarden-like feel, at least on the drums. It's on the noisier end of the scale for this album as a whole. Proggy breakdowns chug away towards the end, showing that they haven't completely done away with the power of a distorted open note riff, just without needing to melt your faces off.

I have listened to this album around eight or nine times already, and feel like I understand it more and more each time. There is so much to unpack, so many layers to unearth, so many gems beneath the surface that come on repeat listens. They've never been a particularly 'immediate' band, but reward those that stick around.

Overall, you do notice how Boss Keloid have evolved as a band in the five years since Family. Clearly, a great deal of time and consideration has been spent on how to march forward as a creative unit, on what that sounds like, and on placing each note and beat carefully into their music. This might explain the gap... but it's been worth the wait. With more in the way of acoustic guitars and clean chords, it's a lighter listen for considerable parts of the album, but the sludge influences haven't completely gone away, they are just presented differently to the way that many others do it.

Importantly, it's an enjoyable listen, you want to come back to it, and it's a logical next step in their career for longterm fans who are used to the band constantly changing and evolving. At a surface level, there's not too much in common between here and their set ten years ago that introduced me to the band, but the more you come to understand who they are and what they represent musically, the more you connect the lines and see the emphasis on cleaner tones and gentler melodies as a  meaningful development.

Float & Aperture is another masterpiece from Boss Keloid, though you expect nothing less. They have raised the bar yet again in creativity and musicality.

Float & Aperture will be released on 23 October 2026 via Church Road Records

Many thanks to Sammy from CRR for sending this my way.

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MN