Boris- Noise

Boris is the kind of band that you literally don't know what you're going to get when you hear they are putting out a new release. They have ventured into so many different genres of the years, it is hard to keep track. But on this endeavor, they may have just found their niche in terms of genres...EVERYTHING!

The album begins with the track, Melody. It starts off quite atmospheric, until the drums slowly coming in and it hits a great. The song has an upbeat Shoegaze feel to it (Which is odd to say, upbeat Shoegaze) it does venture off into some heavy sections as well but still has that Indie, kinda Poppy feel throughout. This leads into the next track, Vanilla. This is straight up J-Pop/J-Rock. Towards the middle it ventures into some heavy segments, especially during the solo with some great Stoner Metal riffage which ends the track. Up next is Ghost Of Romance which is a very somber, shoegazy type of song that can pull at you just by the music alone. The whole song has a feel of atmosphere that takes you off into a dream world. It's not until near the end of the song where it starts to somewhat picks up in tempo, but it still leaves you in the dream state and floats away into the next track, Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain once again starts off soft and quiet, but it slowly builds up into a deep Post Rock and Heavy Shoegaze feel. The whole song slowly broods and constantly keep that great Shoegaze and Stoner Metal feel throughout. This is where the album takes another HUGE left turn with the song, Taiyo no Baka, which is a very poppy, Indie Rock song. It's a nice change of pace from the couple of doomy Shoegaze heard previously. This leads into the monster epic that is known as Angel. Clocking in at 18:42. The song slowly, but sure builds up and up and up. Around the 7 minute mark is where everything starts to pick up and the whole band joins in for the heavy doomy riffing. It continues on going into a Post Rock vibe. The song progresses to get faster and heavier until it drops back out into an atmospheric backdrop with tom driven beats, to eventually just a basic beat and clean guitar to let the song fly away. Then the album goes into the biggest left turn of them all, Crust Punk and Thrash Metal with the song Quicksilver. This nearly 10 minute track is relentless as anything heavy they have ever done, which makes up for the lack of fast music before this song on the album. The song doesn't let up until around the 7 minute mark where they go into one of the genres they are best known for, Guitar Drone, which lasts through the rest of the song. The end of the album has a 2 minute instrumental called Siesta, which much like the name suggests, is a very dreamy song and very soundtrackish to close out the album.

Depending on which version of the album you get, there is a second disc containing 5 tracks starting with the song, Bit.  This 9 minute epic of a song again showcases the bands classic Doom/Drone sound. While minimalistic, it is indeed very heavy and sinks you in. Near the end it gets pure Doom Metal and very evil sounding, a great way to start off a collection of B-Sides. Next up is Kimi No Yukue, which again harkens to the J-Rock sound, a nice tempo variation from the previous song, Bit. Following similar suite in the J-Pop/J-Rock sound, is the song Yuushikai Revue. A bit more guitar driven and more rocking than the aforementioned song. Thebonus disc ends with what may be my favorite song of the entire collection, Discharge. It is a great heavy, rocking, Metal song. It is very guitar driven and some fantastic vocal melodies behind it. Again a fantastic way to end a disc.

Noise is a great way of showing how a band can master so many genres in one album, without sounding like a giant hodgepodge of music. In a sense, Noise sounds like a Best Of Boris, with all new material. If you have yet to ever check out the band previously, this is a great starter album for you that will indeed suck you into the Boris universe, in which you may never want to leave.

*Also check out the song, Just Abandoned Myself off the album, Pink, for everything awesome about Boris packed into one 18 minute song*

- 4/5

Boris- Noise available NOW via Sargent House