Quick background if you're new to the band, like I was a few weeks ago: Mr. Bison formed in 2009 in Cecina, a small coastal town in Tuscany. Their first two records were made without a bass player at all — the position opened up after a year, and rather than replace it, the band ran a two-guitar setup, with one guitar split through a bass octave pedal to fake the low end.
It's a trick that's had a moment in rock over the last couple decades, and for a band leaning on Clutch and Fu Manchu-style riffing early on, it worked. About a decade ago the lineup shifted again, this time bringing in members with different musical backgrounds and a real bass player, and that's the version of the band that made Holy Oak in 2018 — the record that pushed them out of straight stoner rock and into the heavier, more progressive, more psychedelic territory they work in now, in the same neighborhood as bands like Elder.
