Sans Froid win me over with Back into the Womb‘s more forthcoming and fun approach to art rock, brimming with thoughts and feelings from an overcrowded mind.
Release date: June 26, 2026 | Church Road Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
I’ve been making a big deal about loud rock this year because a lot of bands and artists have made it their mission to keep the vibe alive in their own way. Prog, punk, melodic, rap, whatever – but I haven’t covered the lighter side of it. The stuff that can’t be called anything but rock, but isn’t trying to burn the house down in the traditional way. No, some bands get a little more artful with it and I hold space for them as well.
One of my favorite rock bands in this lane is (was?) Death And The Penguin, a band I found out about around a year or so into my time here at this site, so hella long ago by now. Just before that, it was Vesper Sails, years ago it was plantoid, and so on. I’m glad I got over my rigid desire to only find and enjoy heavy, fast, and br00tal metal bands in the late 2000s and early 2010s because that would make me write off a band like Sans Froid without ever giving them the fair shot they deserve.
Dropping their debut album Hello, Boil Brain in 2024, it was an interesting listen that didn’t immediately grab me. It was a little more off-beat than I tend to be into. They return with Back into the Womb now and it’s a remarkably more approachable endeavor not even two full years removed from that first album’s release, and cosigned by Church Road Records no less.
Sans Froid put up 11 songs of fun rock that’s not very delicate sonically – nearly every song here has a dense skeleton to it – but thematically it has an emotional fragility to it. Maybe ‘vulnerability’ is the better word here. Told through deft vocal performance, Back into the Womb treads a lot of familiar ground for anyone who’s dared to feel things. Don’t get me wrong, the music plays along often. The anxiety of the title track is striking, somber feelings coat “Thorns”, the bombast of “The Exploiter of Art” feels disruptive and even like protest since it’s about life and artistry in the streaming, content, and (mis)information age.
“Go On” is such a good intro track. It’s large and welcoming, melodic and conventional in structure to hook you in, and I love how it progresses. The vocals on the album channel a bit of Alanis Morissette, God Herself, at times, but especially on “Pros & Constants” with its calm lead-in to the instrumental core with fried synths and a bouncy bass line. The shifting hook is lifted up by sunny atmosphere to really make it stand out.
There’s just a lot to love on this album like the repetitive, chanting nature of “Sorbet” which sounds like it could have been a Hiatus Kaiyote B-side or interlude-esque song of some sort. Maybe the ray gun guitars of “Menorabilia” (not a typo apparently) with entice you, or the track’s underlying tension and bold release at the end. Back into the Womb just has this power to whisk you away and, for me, ends up being a lot more powerful than the band’s last album. Maybe I owe it another listen after this to see if I was tripping big time with my initial thoughts. Regardless, I’m really feeling this new LP because it in turn feels a lot in front of us.
Sans Froid are doing rock their way: artistically, progressively, alternatively. They color in the space after those who came before them took the stage and demolished the place – a functional framing for this very moment, but also literally how this album has found me after months of listening to blistering, stomping music. It’s profound and cozy, but not necessarily restful. Back into the Womb, at least as a name, is perhaps betrayed by the music’s unquiet soul, but that’s also where you get the most benefit from it.
Band photo by Laura Jones
