Words by Veronica Anaya / Cover art by Kabir Dugal
2025 is the year of the Komodos. In just five months, the New York City garage rock outfit has released three redefining singles replete with gritty distortion and ominous ambience. First came “Dead” and then “Lucky Says.” Most recently, we’ve been given “Icarus.”
Komodos has been together since 2022. Its members are Taran Dugal (vox and guitar), Kabir Dugal (drums), Hunter Boivin (guitar), and Ben Baumann (bass). Their musical evolution over the years pays tribute to their eclectic, varying post-punk inspirations, harnessing a new, authentic sound with each new evolution. (Editor’s Note: We wrote them up previously, in 2024)
“Icarus” begins with a droning buzz—a theme within nearly all of Komodos’ songs; serving as the ground-zero launch point for their experimentations with distortion and grain–the band’s garage-rock core and post-punk armor. The production by Martin Bisi (mastered by Fred Kevorkian) brings Sonic Youth and Swans to the foreground as two of Komodos’ direct predecessors. Those underground, experimental alt-rock legends similarly drew upon heavy distortion and reverberating riffs that, if you listen closely, can be heard bleeding into Komodos’ latest discography.
As the song continues, the drums challenge the distorted raw guitar riffs with sharp beats–the bass subtly woven between the two in support of its partners’ contrasting sounds. The yearning vocals from Dugal add the final layer, ringing in tonal clarity until the song arrives at its breakthrough lyrics for the first time:
“Bare the soul, fight the feeling / Losing focus, kill the lights and / When I’m dust, cease your weeping / I’ll be golden, undefiled / Load the gun, believe again / Follow me into the white.”
As his voice distorts it becomes little more than a pleading echo as the lyrical breakthrough draws to a close—diminishing into the distance as the vocals reach escape velocity and abandon the drums, bass, and guitar like Icarus flying too close to the sun—leaving a gaping hole to disrupt the previously symbiotic relationship between instruments and words. Then, the song starts reaching again, and we are presented with the final breakthrough. Dugal’s vocals return distorted as he sings the chorus one last time, and as he sings the last line, “Follow me into the white,” the instruments roar, swallowing his voice until they collapse into a single guitar tone, closing the perfect circle of the opening droning buzz where we started.
Distortion and raw nature make “Icarus.” Opposing layers pieced together meld into an angsty soundscape that hooks the listener from the first note. With one newly revealing single after another in 2025 so far, Komodos appear to be poised on the precipice of greatness if they haven’t made that leap already, one of those bands you’d be advised to keep an eye on when it comes to new songs and shows on the horizon for who knows what they may have in store for us. And I for one cannot wait to see what comes next.