SONS - Robin Borghgraef, Arno De Ruyte, Jens De Ruyte and Thomas Pultyn - is one of the hardest-touring, hardest-hitting rock bands to come out of Belgium in the past decade. Since breaking through in 2018, the four-piece from Melsele has built its name the old-fashioned way: relentless live shows, three studio albums that each pushed the band somewhere new, and a growing reputation on festival stages far beyond home.
The name says it all. SONS was formed by four childhood friends whose own fathers were pals, a band born out of family before it was ever a career. That story came full circle in 2018, when SONS won De Nieuwe Lichting on Studio Brussel. Jury member Jan Paternoster (Black Box Revelation) delivered the line that has followed the band ever since: “I'd be proud if my sons played in that band.”
Three albums, one restless band
Debut album Family Dinner (2019) introduced SONS' raw, garage-punk energy and took them touring across the Benelux, including support slots for Royal Blood and Wolfmother. The follow-up, Sweet Boy (2022), pushed the band's ambitions abroad: stages at Pinkpop, Pukkelpop, Down The Rabbit Hole, Into The Great Wide Open, Reeperbahn, Trans Musicales and Iceland Airwaves, two consecutive years on the Rock Werchter line-up, a support slot for Jack White, and a first real foothold in France, Germany, Switzerland and Greece. American radio station KEXP summed up the band's live reputation in two words: “sensational chaos.”
With third album Hallo (2025), SONS proved they could evolve without losing their DNA, still loud, still sharp, but with more light and more depth than before. Produced by British producer Dave McCracken (Depeche Mode, dEUS, Beyoncé, Ian Brown), Hallo became the record that carried the band into its busiest, biggest chapter yet.
The band's biggest year
2026 has been that chapter in full. The Hallo club tour sold out Ancienne Belgique, and the band spent the summer as a fixture of the festival circuit, including a fourth appearance at Rock Werchter, this time as third act on the Main Stage on rock Sunday (cap 80.000), alongside dates at Rock Herk and Cactus Festival. In February, SONS released the standalone single 'Surfin'' via [PIAS] Recordings, again with Dave McCracken behind the desk. A two-minute rush of adrenaline about the free, euphoric feeling of falling for someone new, and proof that the band's momentum shows no sign of slowing.
The Hallo era will come to a close with one final, all-out headline show at De Roma in Antwerp in early 2027, the true terminus of an album cycle that turned into the band's most successful yet.
Beyond the stage
Off stage, SONS' story has come full circle once again: in 2026, two band members became fathers to baby boys. New SONS, in the most literal sense of the word, and a reminder of where the band's name, and its music, started in the first place. With a settled line-up, a widening reach across Europe and South America, and an appetite that hasn't dulled after three albums and eight years, SONS heads into its next chapter the same way it built the last: on stage, loud, and together.
