Location: Montevideo
Country: Uruguay
Genre: Gothic black metal
Single/video: The Son (a tribute to Horacio Quiroga)
Format: Promotional video, digital
Label: Independent
Release date: October 18, 2025
"The Son," the new single and promotional video by Upon Shadows is a tribute to Horacio Quiroga (1878–1937), a Uruguayan poet, playwright, and author of short stories. Similar in some aspects to the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, Quiroga's career was rather dark and greatly inspired by real-life terror, depicting unfavorable human circumstances and uncontrollable circumstances.
An admirer of Rudyard Kipling, Guy de Maupassant, and Edgar Allan Poe, Quiroga was captivated by disease, insanity, and torment, frequently exploring mental illness, hallucinations, and particularly the struggle between human beings and nature in his writings. The language Quiroga used in his extensive published work, including "Stories of Love, Madness, and Death," "Jungle Tales," "The Beheaded Hen and Other Stories," "Beyond," and "The Chair of Pain," is described as natural, straightforward, exact, and elaborate. Penned with few adjectives, his work also tended to be somewhat pompous. It should come as no surprise that he would be inspirational on the darker subgenres of metal.
Before this single came out I’d never heard of Quiroga, but listening to it and reading about him made me interested in finding his published writings. After more than two decades of exploring new avenues for their work, they draw from unlooked for sources to create poetic, beautifully worded representation of Quiroga's visions. The surreal, bizarre keyboard section opening "The Son" with its ethereal spoken word passages leads to guitars that provide an ambient and transcendental sound, transporting you right into Quiroga's innermost thoughts.
When the song gets underway it’s more unsettling than the band's previous work, having a similar sound to classic black and gothic metal, but with more dissonance than normal and a sense of stifling that tries to suffocate you beneath the veil that covers everything like a thin mist. The lyrics compel you to think as if you’re reading Poe, Ray Bradbury or Shirley Jackson, the way those writers bring their imaginations to life making you feel you’re part of their worlds.
The video accompanying the song places emphasis on the dualism of man and nature in all its enormous, limitless, unending grandeur. In addition, it features imagery that contrasts man and beast, along with captivating visuals and terrifying images. The impact the band aims to have through all this is nearly indescribable. I've included a link to the track and the video so you can judge for yourself. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Natalia Arocena: Bass, theremin
Tamara Picardo: Keyboards, guitars, vocals, lyrics
Special guest appearance by Pablo Hansen on guitar
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