Review
Boris
Dear

I like the idea of certain types of metal paralleling the thought patterns of jazz. Whether it is the twitchy renderings of a Meshuggah beat, the sprinkle of jazz-like tendencies of an Intronaut record, or the experimental coo-coo of Fantomas. The immediacy, expansive sound, and improvisation can certainly draw comparison to a Miles Davis or John Coltrane offering. Those two individuals could be just as intense without all the distortion. And I like to bring the Japanese overlord snow-capped, glacial movements of Boris into that conversation as well. There are some who could argue that the experimental nature of Boris transcends either genre encompassing one all its own. Their wall of sound has been mimicked, copied, but, like a Warhol, you can tell a real Boris from a fake Boris. 

The band has been around for 25 years and to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the band has released an opus of sorts entitled Dear. The band, fresh off their 10th anniversary Pink tour got the itch to record and made three albums worth, whittled down into 10 songs for Dear. Being that this is a Boris record, it is heavy, so heavy in fact that they reveled in the scratches, crackles, and sonic feedback from their amps, and left them in the songs. They refer to the record as “heavenly - far beyond heavy”, which is a tongue in cheek phrase as they are still tearing up unprotected ear drums, but intersperse dreamy shoegaze pop, filtered through their musty Boris-like temple. 

The record is everything you want in a Boris offering, a grinding slurry of noise that always manages a left turn. If you love the Boris that burns a slow, sloth-like lurch the first two songs “D.O.W.N - Domination of Waiting Noise” and the sinister vocals of “DEADSONG” are what you are looking for, but the entirety of Dear does not reflect this. “Absolutego” rumbles along a downtuned, gravel road. “Beyond” follows with a horror-movie soundtrack, opening up to a beautiful, rock face wall of noise. “Biotope” is a desert landscape stomp, and “Memento Mori” finds the dove after the slaughter driving a wave of sound that bows in and out of actual notes. The one song I found very interesting was the 12 minute opus “Dystopia - Vanishing Point”. The slow building, accordion laden song, is sparse until the 7 minute mark when Boris actually do their best impression of Guns N Roses offering an unfettered guitar solo to ride on until the end.

And maybe that’s what makes this band so great. They weave in and out of sound, but very rarely veer too far from what Boris actually sounds like. It is refreshing that a band 25 years and 25 albums into their career can still find the flame that keeps that art alive.