BORIS

Flood, a prog album for the patient. Like "FEEDBACKER" this album is one large song split into multiple parts but unlike "FEEDBACKER" this is much, much much more slower paced, the first track here is a math rock riff that repeats for TEN MINUTES so i hope you enjoy that riff before some sound effects come in and to be honest I'm not the biggest fan of Flood Part 1, and I like Post Rock but I just find the opening track to be waaaayyy to repetitive, not bad I'm sure if your listening to Boris you probably already like Post Rock/Metal but I'm just not into this specific track part two on the other hand has repetition as well but I enjoy it much more the track starts off with these indie like riffs its super relaxing and lasts about five minutes but I like it quite a bit, the second half of the song has some slight change to build up to part three continues the slow acoustic riffing until the metal comes in and after almost 30 minutes of waiting the album gets heavy with this grunge like passage that sounds a lot like THE MELVINS which makes sense considering the band was heavily influenced by them and was the wait worth it? I'd say yes. Part 4 is more metal stuff with some cool soloing at the beginning midway it gets more ambient and drones off into the next part, this track is more ambiance which isn't bad but highlights my problem with the album is that there's too much ambiance, and while it's not bad I'm just left with wanting more metal and the album feels just wishy washy to me, I know that the experience is supposed to have a rollercoaster like structure with the middle being the peak but I'm not into, again I want more metal, but don't let this discourage this album is a monster and a great one at that, is it my personal favorite? No but is it still good yes! Yes it is overall Flood is a great album and an...interesting addition to a prog collection

Boris. A doom metal band band like no other and this release is pretty neat, (with the exception of one track) this isn't the most proggy album of theirs however it's still an excellent album, the sounds here this time are Doom, Punk, and Psych (with a tiny bit of prog). Just like Nick Drake's Bryter Layter album (witch the cover is referencing) it opens with an introduction but instead of a peaceful folk instrumental it's a nine minute doom rock drone and like in typical Boris nature it's repetitive but not in a bad way, it's very effect driven (lots of feedback like usual) and it sounds like if a song off of KING CRIMSON'S "RED" was an ambient track it may be near ten minutes but it is not boring what so ever. The next track is a heavy punk track and I don't know if I'm alone here but the guitar tone sounds a lot like KING CRIMSON'S "LARKS TOUNGS IN ASPIC". The song itself also almost sounds like a punk version of an early BLACK SABBATH song (this album in general does really) the album contines with the punk sound on the next track and is pretty good again has the for-mentioned sounds and if you've listened to there "PINK" album then you'd get some enjoyment out of this. Then comes my personal highlight of the album the track Naki Kyoku is the albums twelve minute prog epic, having influences of Doom/Stoner rock, Psych and even Krautrock there's moments here that sound influenced by Krautrockers CAN and man this track is good and my favorite off the album, any prog fan would get a kick out of this, the album then follows up with the last track, returning to the punk sound and is alright but I'm just left a bit underwhelmed by it after that previous prog epic we just had it's not bad by any means far from it but it's again just a bit underwhelming for me. But in conclusion this is an excellent album, not my favorite from them but still a very solid release

Boris(Boris's?) album Feedbacker is what I'd consider to be a masterpiece of prog/drone/psych/punk and noise rock music and while Boris is no stranger to these styles of music the styles presented here are at there most mature sound there most complete and definitive sound and is in my opinion the band's best work. Nothing but raw power and emotion flow though this record like on the introduction track here, it's a nine minute drone that builds and builds up until the second track that it flows into, and let me just say that Feedbacker Part 2 has become one of my favorite songs ever, it's this slow psychedelic drone that is honestly just plain beautiful it's repetitive but you don't get tired of it. The songs is colored with slashes of psychedelic effects and then my favorite part of the song is the guitar solo and man it's insanely emotional it sounds like it's trying to be calm yet aggressive at the same time and in my opinion is one of the most emotional pieces of music I've ever heard and this song is completely instrumental then after that calm ordeal the album gets very aggressive again but this time it peaks with a punk/shoegaze (and lots of wah effects) sound jerking you around with the song calming down and jumping up in aggression again and the band's influences (specifically The Melvins) shine here with an almost grunge-y sound. Then part four is easily the noisiest track on here before the track turns into what honesty sounds like metal scraping against each other almost reminds me of something of a Swans or Nurse With Wound record. The song flows into part five and were given a reprise of the melody from part two before getting some changes and the song just perfectly wraps up the album. This multi part album is a MUST for any metal, prog, drone, punk, psych or noise fan and I hope this site brings more people to listen to this masterpiece

Ranging from an opening post-metal sound to heavy psych turned up to 11 influenced by 60s acts such as Blue Cheer or Cream, BORIS continues their unique combination of sludgy riffs and drone doom feedback fuzz with several outros bringing the not-in-no-hurry drone doom band Earth to mind on their tenth album PINK. Apparently there are two versions of PINK. One from the Japanese label on Diwphalanx Records and the one I have from Southern Lord Records. They have different tracks lists with different running times but I believe they are the same tracks in Japanese and English and the ones with longer running times are just extended versions. They also have different album covers.

This album took on a more melodic songwriting approach than many BORIS albums have. The trio successfully added some catchy tunes to create their fuzzed out doomy atmospheric magic around. The songs range from spacy post-metal that is slow and breezy to super aggressive dissonant yet bluesy heavy psych. There is feedback galore amongst punky rockers and hypnotic repetitive riffs. The last track on my version "Just Abandoned Myself" is a staggering 18 minute plus drony, doomy delight that manages to incorporate the only Japanese sound on the whole album with a samisen or some other Eastern stringed instrument into the mix. If you are looking for some totally spacey, fuzzy and feedback sludge psych then you can't go wrong with PINK, yet another winner from BORIS.

Forging a melting pot that includes doom metal, sludge metal, stoner metal and even thrash metal styles mixed with ambient, post-hardcore, garage punk, noise prog, dream pop and post-rock, BORIS continued to up its game on PINK by finding a new way to add new elements to its basic drone metal recipe. PINK has become a cult classic and one of the more popular releases of the massive BORIS canon. A deluxe version exists with nine extra tracks called "Forbidden Songs." Given the spaced out intangible nature of much of BORIS' music, these tracks are hard to latch onto but provide a fascinating psychedelic construct fueled with guitar fuzz and various strains of metal heft. The album has been lauded and described as a burst of contagious energy fused with mesmerizing atmosphere. PINK remains a fascinating exploration of experimental from the early 2000s.

AKUMA NO UTA (The Devil's Song) is the 5th album by the Japanese band BORIS and my first taste of this drone / sludge / doom metal band. One of the most perplexing impressions of this album was that the cover looks exactly like folk singer Nick Drake's album "Bryter Layter" except bassist / guitarist / vocalist Takeshi is displaying his double-neck Ibanez. It is intended to be a tribute and not a parody yet it is rather ironic since the highly distorted sonic stew that BORIS presents is as far away from the placid acoustic folk of Drake as you can get. The cover of the very first issue was a simple white cover with a simple doodle but the US version with Takeshi is the more common one.

I find this to be an exciting album that takes you on a ride through all the styles of metal that BORIS had been dabbling with on previous albums. "Introduction" is the first track which at a staggering length of 9:44 reminds us of the ambient drone metal of Earth. It is an intricate little piece that has more fuzz than a peach orchard. The rest of the album finds the band taking their garage band versions of sludge and punk and post-rock to interesting distorted levels. BORIS really knows how to mix the laid-back with the energetic pieces and add enough diverse elements to make a satisfying album from beginning to end. I've only dabbled in their discography up to this point, but albums like AKUMA NO UTA certainly beckon further exploration, and for anyone who likes the fuzziest sonicscapes out there, look no further than BORIS.

The original album featured a white background with a cartoon insect doodle on Diwphalanx Records and then later was released with the better known Nick Drake parody cover on Southern Lord Records, which BORIS has been most prominantly associated with. By this time BORIS had become quite unique in how it blended droning with stoner metal, psychedelic rock, garage punk, noise rock and even heavy psych. One of the band's more popular releases AKUMO NO UTA has also become one of the best known examples of competent drone metal which can be quite monotonous and rather boring. The canon of BORIS is a mess with many items featuring the same title and many tracks showing up on various releases with different versions. On this one the "Intro" is a different take on the Southern Lord version.

True that Earth was first in creating the whole drone metal thing and others like Melvins and Naked City immediately followed in the wake but it was the Japanese noise worshippers BORIS who really created something special in the doom and gloom department with an amplifier feed back so fat it needs lyposuction and bass sound so deep it disturbs slimy earth worms. ABSOLUTEGO is the then quartet's debut album which originally came out on the Fangs Anal Satan label but has since been picked up by Southern Lord where it features a bonus track.

This entire album is basically one 60:15 long (65:34 on the ABSOLUTEGO+ edition) ripple through feedback and fuzz with a slow pulsating rhythmic march that sounds like a stoned Godzilla prowling the countryside looking for munchies as the feedback twists and morphs and extends to infinity and back to create quite disturbing sonicscapes that eke out all the dread and awe that this type of music was made for.

As the hypnotic rhythm marches on, the fuzz thickens and the percussion slowly evolves until around the half hour mark a cacophonous drum frenzy simulates the chaos of a falling building after a Japanese earthquake or something and then reverts back into the pacified feedback and fuzz march once again. Throughout the album the sounds are jarring and sound like the listener is under the rotating blades of a lawnmower on the verge of being ripped to shreds but never actually going there and only sustaining the impending doom to come.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart as there is no traditional song structure and is pretty much a parade through sonic torture of sort. As drone metal isn't my favorite type of metal on the scene there are some true standouts and this introduction to the Japanese noise scene combined with jarring metal sounds is one of the best out there. I recommend the edition with the bonus track "Dronevil 2" which is a mere 7:50 in length but adds a different quieter drone ending to the album that doesn't rely on fuzzy guitars and more on an undulating bass line that reverbs so low it sounds like the subwoofer is gonna explode.

Despite this release of one track that extends past the 60 minute mark, the band itself considers it a single and has been deemed as such. Personally anything over 30 minutes long is an album in my book!

LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM WITH HEADPHONES

Feedbacker is one of the many masterpieces by Japanese eclectic metal band Boris. Listening to this album feels like being lost in fog/ a wall of sound especially the intro track, the song being a 9 minute build up to the rest of the album it may seem long but it's worth it. Part 2 has a more traditional Post Rock type sound going on and one of the most emotional sounding guitar solos I've ever heard, at the 8:14 timestamp the guitar solo starts and man it's something, I'd say it's just as emotional as Watermelon In Easter Hay or Maggot Brain. Part 3 is a full on Punk song, a genre the band will experiment with every now and then. Part 4 goes for an almost Blackgaze sound before the fifth and final part that is just the ending track that calms the suite down. Really I don't know what else to say, this album is beautiful and is essentially a combination of all the bands previous sounds, if your new with Boris then I heavily recommend you start here