Boss Keloid dial down their heavier side without totally banishing it or their knack of being wholly themselves for Float & Aperture.
Release date: October 23, 2026 | Church Road Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
I get the sense that Boss Keloid maybe overexerted themselves with their last album. It’s not that they were out of their depth and in over their head on Family the Smiling Thrush – quite the opposite in fact – but I have to wonder about it since this new album is comparatively laid back. That album and Melted on the Inch, which is where I got hip to Boss Keloid, had a wonderful stonery weight while Float & Aperture sits firmly in the prog category that the band often veer into anyway.
It’s far from toothless and demure though. What I mean is that there’s hardly anything here with the intensity of “Gentle Clovis” or even “Chronosiam” from those respective past albums, never mind their older stuff which tends to be way heavier and sludgier than even those recent LPs. Float & Aperture is as confidently weird and joyously offbeat as the rest of band’s music, the main difference is that it’s now handled with the perpetual serenity otherwise achieved through tantra and a clever angularity that just stops short of being off-putting, at least for me.
Many people have said it before, but there’s just not much out there like Boss Keloid. Over time, they’ve staked claim to a unique identity which is so hard to do when you originate from the stoner metal or even the progressive metal arenas. Someone more technically inclined than me could explain why and how better, but for me it comes down to the instrumental vibe. For example, “Landslide” has a similar Latin-type rhythmic flair that “Peykruve” had on Melted on the Inch, but this one’s even more danceable. Maybe not the most out-there thing, but listen to it. The intro flourishes oddly, but brightly. Each subsequent section has a different heartbeat where sometimes the melody is hard to pin down. This makes a lot of sense for a song about being your own worst enemy and the complicated feelings that realization stings you with.
The first song “Breeze” is more conventional as a lead-in track as is usually the case for Boss Keloid albums, but this one still doesn’t cede much ground when it comes to progressive proclivities. It spends more time forming lush guitar lines and the overall pace is quite slow for the band. Vocals are in full big boy mode though. One of the best aspects is how this comparatively pretty music is contrasted by Alex’s singing, slightly gruff, always powerful. We even get some nice, clean, high lilts in “Pedestal” and if that’s still Alex, dude has range.
One critique I do have with this album is that it didn’t really need to be almost ten minutes longer than Family the Smiling Thrush. Boss Keloid songs have always had a nice density to them, but they reach a new level of fat here that could have been trimmed. For instance, “Landslide” is great, but I didn’t really need the last hook/refrain which in total with instrumental asides takes up 2:22 of the track. It’s not egregious, especially for prog-based music, but it does carry a ‘wow, this is still the same song?’ kind of tone to it which isn’t ideal. This in turn makes “Accord” one of my favorite songs because, as much as I appreciate if not love the soundscapes the band build with most instrumental sections, this sub-six-minute slammer is economical in comparison. Its ending blitz of drums and guitars is a culmination of the track’s heavier shift which is great to hear, even if only for a moment like a cool cameo in a fun movie.
So it’s likely obvious this isn’t my favorite Boss Keloid album, and that’s fine. This is still them making good on what I believe is an unspoken promise to always go off the beaten path. They’ve been zigging for a bit now so it’s time for a zag. I’m not mad at it. If you tried the band before and were put off by their more sludgy, stonery, heavy foundation, you might vibe with Float & Aperture more. As long as they keep sounding like only they can, the respect is always there because there’s just too much homogenization across a lot of art these days. The existence of Boss Keloid is a much needed affront to that.
