Boris

The Japanese sludge and doom rock trio Boris built a devoted cult audience after taking their name from a track on the Melvins’ Bullhead album. While sharing the Melvins’ taste for heavily downtuned guitars and bass alongside extremely slow tempos, the group also incorporated elements of psychedelic rock, punk, noise, minimalism, and pure drone, giving much of their output a boldly experimental character. Their records often take the form of large-scale conceptual statements: the 2001 edition of Absolutego presented a single 65-minute feedback-laden drone piece; Flood, issued in 2005, unfolded as one 70-minute track that emphasized quieter textures with minimalist and phase-music leanings; and Altar, released in 2006, emerged from a drone-and-feedback collaboration with Sunn O))). Additional joint projects include the 2008 album Cloud Chamber with Japanese psych guitarist Michio Kurihara and several recordings with power-electronics and noise pioneer Merzbow, among them the 2013 set Gensho. On 2017’s Dear the band blended doom metal, noise, and heavily overdriven shoegaze textures, while 2020 brought a pair of new releases including No. In January 2022 they delivered the companion album W, completing a single overarching concept, and that August they issued the third installment of their Heavy Rocks series. Bright New Disease, a collaboration with the New York noise-rock outfit Uniform, surfaced in 2023.

Boris came together in the early 1990s with guitarist Wata, bassist Takeshi, vocalist Atsuo, and drummer Nagata, the last of whom left in 1996 and left the remaining members to continue as a trio with Atsuo on both drums and vocals. Their first appearance on record came on the Japan-only 1994 compilation Take Care of Scabbard Fish. The band’s debut full-length, Absolutego, arrived in 1996 on their own Fangs Anal Satan imprint; after remaining unavailable in the United States for years, it received a 2001 reissue on Southern Lord that added a bonus track and fresh artwork. Their follow-up, Amplifier Worship, appeared on Mangrove in 1998, the same year Inoxia Records issued the live Boris/Keiji Haino collaboration Black: Implication Flooding. In 1999 Boris released the split More Echoes, Touching Air Landscape with Choukoko No Niwa on Inoxia, and two years later the MIDI Creative label put out their widely praised third album, Flood.

The first of many collaborations with Masami Akita (Merzbow), Megatone, surfaced on Inoxia in 2002; Akita also contributed to that year’s Heavy Rocks, issued by Quattro/UK Discs. Diwphalanx released both Akuma No Uta and Boris at Last: Feedbacker in Japan in 2003. The limited vinyl-only LP The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked came out on Finland’s Kult of Nihilow in 2004 and quickly became one of their most sought-after titles. Southern Lord reissued Akuma No Uta stateside the following year. That same year also saw the experimental double album Dronevil on Misanthropic Agenda and the Mabuta No Ura soundtrack, issued jointly by Catune and Inoxia, plus two further Merzbow pairings, 04092001 and Sun Baked Snow Cave. Boris closed 2005 with the shoegaze-tinged Pink, which Southern Lord brought to American listeners in 2006. The record’s relative accessibility earned widespread praise from both indie and mainstream outlets, prompting larger venues and steady touring.

In 2006 the trio joined drone-metal ensemble Sunn O))) for the full-length Altar and teamed with guitarist Michio Kurihara of Ghost for Rainbow. Two additional volumes of The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked appeared, and Vein emerged on Important Records in two separate editions—a “hardcore” version exclusive to the United States and a “drone” version available only in Europe. The following year brought the limited live document Rock Dream, recorded with Merzbow in Tokyo, a limited Beatles cover of “I Am the Walrus,” and the split Long Hair and Tights with Doomriders on Daymare Recordings. Their fourteenth album, Smile, arrived in spring 2008 with territory-specific mixes, while a second collaboration with Kurihara, Cloud Chamber, appeared on Pedal Records at year’s end.

Boris issued several limited live recordings in Japan along with the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits series of 7-inch singles and the retrospective Boris/Variations + Live in Japan, which included a live DVD. They joined Cult vocalist Ian Astbury for the 2010 EP BXI on Southern Lord. After extensive touring and an unusually extended recording hiatus, the band returned in 2011 with two markedly different Sargent House releases: the aptly titled Heavy Rocks and the more texturally varied, unexpectedly approachable Attention Please, the latter showcasing Wata’s vocals throughout. In March 2011 they released New Album in Japan (where it reached number 15) and later in Europe; it eventually appeared in the United States with an altered track list. Another Merzbow project, Klatter, surfaced that year, followed by a split LP with Joe Volk on Invada in 2012.

The group maintained its prolific pace with 2013’s Präparat and a live re-recording of Flood, then issued the grunge-inflected Noise in 2014 alongside the limited sets The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Extra and Archive Volume Two: Drumless Shows. In 2015 they simultaneously released Warpath, Asia, and Urban Dance on Fangs Anal Satan as part of the New Noise Literacy series. Gensho, yet another Merzbow collaboration, appeared on Relapse in 2016; its first disc contained drumless re-recordings of earlier material plus a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes,” while the second disc offered a new Merzbow recording meant to be played simultaneously, both discs equal in length. The Japanese Daymare edition also included the live document Gensho at Fever 11272015.

Considering a farewell album to mark their 25th anniversary, the members questioned whether they had more to express musically. During the 2016 Beyond Pink Tour, however, audience enthusiasm and their own renewed chemistry reignited their creativity, prompting them to record enough material for three albums before selecting ten tracks for the 2017 single-disc release Dear. They also issued Live at Third Man, documenting that tour.

After celebrating their 25th anniversary in October 2019, Boris partnered with Jack White’s Third Man Records to reissue Feedbacker and Akuma No Uta. They also released the double-length LφVE & EVφL that year. In 2020 they returned with NO, an eleven-track burst of noisy hard rock, joined Japanese noise experimentalists Z.O.A. for the thirty-three-minute “single” If You/En Attendant Godot, and reunited with Merzbow for December’s 2RI2P0. January 2022 brought W, recorded in tandem with No to complete the “Now” concept. That August they reinforced their reputation for heaviness with the third Heavy Rocks chapter, closed the year with the drone album fade, and in 2023 fused thrash, industrial, and hardcore elements with New York’s Uniform on Bright New Disease.