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On the Radar: XII Boar

Just about a month away from playing their first show ever March 18 at the Face Bar in Reading, gruff UK stoner metal trio XII Boar (website here) have an attack to their recently-released first demo that doesn’t forget either side of the genre designation. The guitar solo Tommy Hardrocks elicits on “Beg, Borrow, Steal” reminds of Pepper Keenan, but the furious chug of finale track “Skol” comes right out of the heavy metal playbook — and that’s just fine. Toss in a little High on Fire and you’re good to go.

Hardrocks handles vocals (shouts mostly) with backup from bassist Adam Thomas, while Dave Wilbraham holds down the drums — exceptionally so on “Sludge” — and all of XII Boar (whose name is not to be confused with either the defunct outfit 12 Eyes or Red XIII from Final Fantasy VII) seems to have a firm grasp on the sound they’re going for. It’s relatively straightforward, but for a band who’ve been together just about a year, and don’t have a single show under their belt as of this writing, they’ve more or less got it on lockdown.

Definitely worth keeping on the radar, as you can hear with the Soundcloud player below:

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