Search - Boris :: Amplifier Worship

Your Love is Like a Truck

t-diggs | Brooklyn, NY USA | 07/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Boris album is a great and lumbering beast. Sneering with rows of teeth, gleaming darkness in its eyes, about to devour the world you once thought was so safe.



It starts with the aptly titled "Huge". this song is nothing but, HUGE. Lacking a traditional song sturcture for the first 7 or 8 minutes, it just repeats a massive crushing riff, doubling over on itself, and just when you think "Hmmmm, a Sunn 0))) rip off" drums come pounding in at a snails pace. The space between the notes is what really grasps you on this tracks as chords ring, distorted and distended for moments on end....This is the genesis of the aformentioned beast. And a great intro to an enormous album. At 9 minutes you are feeling uncomfortable, dont worry, you are getting appropriately prepared for utter devastation.



Ganbou-Ki sets the tunes into action with an incredibly anguished howl and more downtuned lurching guitar and devastating drum and bass pummel before skirting off to the sides of your sanity with a heavy hypnotic bass section. This part of the song, long and unhurried, quiets down the immense pressure put on it, only to add pyschedelic feedback and tribal drumming, and a mounting tension that threatens the quiet security one might find in this piece....Warped guitar soloing enters after a period of almost tranquil and interminable quiet and the bass and drums begin setting the stage for a second pummeling. This track is 15 some-odd minutes long and by now you should understand whether or not you are ready to put up with this kind of self indulgent doom. If not, Bail NOW!. If you do have the patience, please continue for a sonic adventure sure to keep your ears ringing.



Hama picks up where Ganbou-Ki left off, with a little eerie chirp that sounds like crickets before exploding into full on sludge punk that has a very industrial pounding feel. Then, taking a sharp left youre treated to more hypnotic psychedelics and another build which leads back to the beginning of the song, with almost chanted vocals and a great break. 6 minutes for this, the shortest track here.



Kuruimizu begins with another punk workout with some particularly vicious vocal delivery. You must be sweating by now, yes? Lets continue: Sludge punk then becomes the darkest march to the afterworld with martial drumming and a thick lead that dissipates into one thick guitar and some evil whispering. If the first track is to be likened to our beast that we described, then track 2 and 3 are that same beast wreaking doom and destruction on the world it is intent to devour. Then Kuruimizu is the death of that world. The passing of the world into darkness. This darkness comes in the form of a shimmering post rock build that will have the most solid of Godspeed You! Black Emperor fans impressed. A very trippy affair and yet still completely in line with the hell that had been unleashed just 30 minutes before....This extraordinary section almost makes you feel hopeful before leaving you with a flatline feedback drone and the grim realization that this world is now the beast's world and we are naught but a shimmer of the past it once was.



This realization is known as Vomitself, track 5, in which the world is nothingness. A dark hell carved out by the beast, rendering hope and light into dust. Blistering feedback and the most dropped tuning and droning you could imagine this side of the Sunn.



The album as a whole has many analogies that one could make in describing the ebb and flow of emotions here. The sound and progression are top notch quality played by musicians who have a clear idea of what they wish to achieve. The album plays as one long song split into 5 parts that total over an hour of music, so it is truly best to commit yourself to the experience by listening on good headphones or a good stereo and making sure you have the full amount of time needed to absorb this hulking monolith of doom. If you do this, you will surely be taken places, some places maybe you dont want to be taken, but nonetheless a glimpse of a place you wouldnt happen across unless you went looking for it...A darkness, without and within.



If this album pleases you, then I give you this caveat: Boris fans know that Boris is a chameleon of metal, rock, doom, and stoner sludge. Choosing which album to listen to is like picking out what you want to feel. If you want more of the same, then I highly reccomend you seek out their latest "Dronevil - Final" from Inoxia Records, and for a lighter taste, the ambient drone of "Flood". If you want the Boris displayed on their latest and great album "Pink", then you should look to the albums "Heavy Rocks" and "Akuma No Uta"...They have a much more rock an roll feel, ala Sabbath and Motorhead, that is extremely pleasing. But wait! Theres more! They also have a "soundtrack" to a made up film called "Mabuta No Ura" which I would place next to Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mogwai in terms of mood and tone. They also have a few even more avant-garde albums such as their collaborations with Japanese noise specialist Merzbow (Three albums total) and another with Keiji Haino and then theres the first album and an extremely thick slab of hell, "Absolutego"



"Amplifier Worship" satisfies on many levels for its foray into many of the territories that Boris has staked a claim in on their other albums, but if you are looking for a band to keep your interest and you are into a variety of rock and metal styles than Boris is a band that will keep you running to catch up and see what they do next."

Avoid If Your Face Easily Melts

Tom Chase | London | 04/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Never have I come across an album with such a wonderfully accurate title. "Amplifier Worship" is a wondrous, mind-numbing onslaught of guitar tone at its most heavy. It is also a complex and very progressive album, and this is what separates Boris from the rest of the doom/drone/stoner field - their ability to utilise extreme doom and drone amidst various contrasting genres.



The bookends to the album, "Huge" and "Vomitself" are pure unabashed outings into heaviness - the former is an abrasive and threatening opening, fully equipped with lumbering doom grooves, shrieked vocals and slogging drone blasts. The counterpart bookend "Vomitself" is 17 minutes of classic drone a la Earth and Sunn O))), equally otherworldly and epic. The middle section of "Amplifier Worship" makes for a more varied and eclectic listen. "Ganbou-Ki" starts in a similar vein to "Huge" but a sudden tempo change breakdown cuts in and shifts the atmosphere completely. The song grooves and drifts into a base-lead march with hypnotic ambience, tribal drumming and atmospheric guitar antics. "Hama" starts with energetic punk rock then breaks down with a very retro 70s stoner rock groove. "Kuruimizu" fashions a brooding finale, sounding part ambient and part post-rock with down tempo, gentle and trippy guitar layering. These songs are superbly varied, showcasing a band in full control shifting genres, tempos and dynamics with ease.



Fans of stoner/doom/drone will find much joy here. "Amplifier Worship" is on of the sheer heaviest albums I have ever heard, but also one of the most compelling and perfectly experimental. Highly recommended for fans of this sound and style or just those wanting something heavy with a twist.

"

Boris - 'Amplifier Worship' (Southern Lord)

Mike Reed | USA | 06/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Released in 1998, this was the Japanese stoner / doom rock trio's second full-length album. I have to be in the 'right' mood to properly enjoy titles like this. Specially dug the CD's three tracks that average fifteen minutes each - the psychedelic jam work-out "Ganbou-Ki", "Kuruimizu" and the awesome "Vomitself" {features some good bass feedback}. Line-up: Takeshi-bass & vocals, Watu-guitar & ebow and Atsuo-drums & vocals. Should appeal to fans of Wolfmother, Melvins, Sleep, Fu Manchu and Sons Of Otis. A should-have."