Spice King - Feral Family
By Libby Driscoll
Striving to induce their listeners into an altered state of mind, Feral Family draws divine inspiration from science fiction in their latest release, Spice King.
Spice King - Feral Family
Following up their Spaghetti Western-inspired single Wee Van Bee, Spice King serves as the first release of 2023 for the Yorkshire four-piece. Influenced by the score of the sci-fi franchise Dune, Guitarist Oscar explains that he “started playing around with different loops and synth samples”, after listening to the film’s soundtrack, moving him to create a force of darkness that would consume the listener.
“It’s a story of powerhunger — how a group can take an innocent life and mould it into an obedient being through deviancy, manipulation and by hooking someone up with a potent substance. They become another chess piece on your board, a play toy for your pleasure that you can discard at your will and with no consequence.”
Jamie - frontman, Feral Family
Spice King is every bit of doom you could possibly hope for. From the chugging bassline to the layers of jagged ambience shrouding the guitars and vocals, it’s been a while since I’ve heard a track that pairs so well with the album artwork. Though the imagery is a simple grainy monochromatic wave, the song is so densely thick with a grim, grey atmosphere that you’re sucked into the song's conceptual plane within mere seconds.
Despite the gnarly atmosphere you succumb to, you can’t help but appreciate the pristine production of it all. The power behind the vocals is enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck as it weaves in and out of the jolting direction of the chorus. The mania of the chorus sees you battle it out to reach the top of the wave as you keep getting sucked under the currents of crashing overlaps of melody, reverb and dread. It’s another factor that makes the track feel so uncanny - the grating, doomy feel of Spice King against the lusciously slick production is enough to internally rattle anybody’s nervous system.
It’s fair to say that Feral Family have come in unfathomably strong in the lead up to their debut EP (released in May 2023). It’s no secret that it’s bloody hard to release something that feels authentically new these days, but Spice King is a catastrophically raw form of originality; for a track to induce an internal feeling so well is an absolute credit to the band.
So, you want to feel the impending doom of hanging off a cliff's edge but aren’t quite brave enough yet? Go ahead and pop Spice King on for your adrenaline fix instead - I’m sure it’ll sort you out.