Boston Manor - ‘Sliding Doors’
Boston Manor have recently released one of, if not the best song of their career - ‘Sliding Doors’. Multiple fan comments on their Instagram draws parallels between the track's sound and that of bands such as Deftones and Rage Against The Machine - and the resemblance is uncanny.
With Henry Cox's killer screams, this track is a great example of their heavy vocal style from their 2020 album 'Glue'. While their last album, ‘Datura’, leaned more towards a pop-rock sound, fans are excited of a return to the vocals reminiscent of ‘Glue’. As well, with their previous album containing only 7 tracks, fans are enthusiastically awaiting a longer album to fully indulge and lose themselves in.
This track, in many ways, literally leads right back to the start of Boston Manor. ‘Sliding Doors’ is their second single of the year and explores luck, the butterfly effect, serendipity, and how no matter how small our decisions or how small events are, they can have a big impact. Reflecting on the meaning behind the song, frontman Henry Cox credits the formation of Boston Manor to a bus crash:
“I’d gone home to visit my parents for the weekend and had taken a bus up to north shore to go and visit a friend. I was on my way home and the bus basically crashed. It wasn’t bad, no one was hurt or anything but I had to get off [...] I had been texting Mike and it turned out the bus had crashed at the bottom of his street, so I just went round to his. We basically ended up writing the first song from our demo that night. We played our first show a few weeks later.
If that car hadn’t pulled out on that bus, we probably never would’ve started Boston Manor & been all the places we’ve been, I wouldn’t have met my wife & half of my friends. I don’t know if I would even be playing music now".
Cox also draws inspiration from the 1998 Romance film 'Sliding Doors'. Similar to the film's philosophy, Boston Manor's track underscores the idea that every action, no matter how big or small, has an impact on your life. Cox explains that: “I called it that because when we were writing it I started thinking about all of the decisions that I’ve made that have led me to the life I have and how circumstantial a lot of it is.”
'Sliding Doors' serves as a means for the band to acknowledge that as we navigate life and make decisions, certain aspects of ourselves fade while new ones emerge. Who we become can come down to even the smallest of actions.
So, not only does this track have powerful guitar riffs and vocals; it's also deeply rooted in the band's personal backstory. I believe this invites listeners to connect with the band a lot more. This connection between Boston Manor and their fans demonstrates that great music isn't just about sound but also about creating art that resonates and invites listeners to explore.
They released this track a few days before their tour, timing it perfectly, so fans attending this tour can expect to hear this head-banger of a track live. However, if you unfortunately didn’t manage to grab a ticket, ‘Sliding Doors’ is available on all streaming platforms now.
Words by Emily Fletcher
