By Monk

Artwork for Family The Smiling Thrush by Boss KeloidBoss Keloid are one of those beautiful bands that defy simplistic generic classification that so many of us media types (overly) enjoying using with gay abandon, instead bestriding multiple soundscapes with an alacrity that is beguiling and vibrant in its joyous defiance of convention and expectation.

Weaving intricate sonic webs that knit themselves between and betwixt proto-doom, psyched-out prog, sludgy stoner intensity and classic rock sensibilities, the Wigan quartet perhaps best fit the descriptive “progressive”, as they are indeed that very adjective incarnate, pushing and exploring the boundaries of generic limitations, probing deeper and deeper into more and more diverse and elemental aspects of each genre and melding them together into a uniquely homogenous whole.

Dense doom-laden bass riffs intermingle with deft touches of intricate, entwined guitars which build beautifully layered soundscapes which veer from the brutally aggressive to the ethereally beautiful with an ease that, when you read it like this, sounds like it shouldn’t work, but does, on every level.

With its mixture of harmony and heaviness, ‘Family…’ has a balance which many strive to achieve, but few manage. Boss Keloid are definitely, and defiantly, among the few standard-bearers who have done so, and impressively so, producing in the process a new level of attainment for those who dare to follow them to seek to emulate.

  • ‘Family The Smiling Thrush’ is released today (Friday 4 June). You can get your copy HERE.
  • Boss Keloid are scheduled to play the Damnation Festival on 6 November, and then undertake their own headline tour from 18 – 28 November.

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