Polar Son - Wax/Wane (2023) Hi-Res

Today, Brighton based atmospheric rock five-piece Polar Son (FKA Porshyne) have released their much anticipated new album ‘Wax / Wane’. The release marks a new chapter for the band who returned earlier this year with details of their name change.

Having earned plaudits from the likes of BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Alt Press, CLASH, Kerrang! Radio, Upset, New Noise Magazine, Music Radar, and more. Polar Son have developed a cult following for their borderless and ever evolving sound, whilst also playing alongside the likes of Black Peaks, The Physics House Band, and many more. Now having emerged from Middle Farm and Echo Zoo studios, where they recorded with Mark Roberts (Black Peaks/ Delta Sleep etc.), Polar Son are set to return with their most expansive and experimental material to date.

Following recent singles ‘Youth’ and ‘Wax’, the band recently release a new track titled ‘Listen’, which showed a completely different side to Polar Son’s writing style. Combining cyclical math-inflected guitar riffing with brooding electronic soundscapes that creep and build around frontman Fergal Lyden’s prog soaked, Thom Yorke-esque vocal lines. The track perfectly exemplifies how the band are able to traverse their heavier sensibilities stylistic boundaries, toying with dynamics and building into new territory which is as idiosyncratic as it is accessible.

The band’s earlier material has drawn references to the likes of Tool, Dredg, Radiohead, and Kyuss, but the new album sees them forge a sound that builds outwardly on this template. Tracks such as ‘Gangrene’ see Polar Son orchestrate a progressive epic that features intricate riffing, ambient electronica, and epiphanic sax. Whereas ‘Listen’ sees the band fully lean into the newly introduced electronic dynamic combining minimal math-rock riffing with dark drum machine-built beats, sub-bass, and almost euphoric synth sections – all underpinned by Lyden’s vocals which flex around the instrumentation. This can also be seen on ‘Wax’ which showcases further diversity in the band’s evolution, combining heavy industrial instrumentation with angular guitars and hook heavy, rhythmic vocals.

Polar Son are not so much moving away from the sound that has seen them earn worldwide acclaim, but are making a direct statement that they’re not afraid to push the boundaries of their compositional abilities. Over the course of eight genre-bending tracks ‘Wax / Wane’, the band have forged a new path for themselves, one that gives them the freedom to explore and toy with every sonic tool at their disposal, to create a sound that almost immediately sounds like their own.