Band:	Boris
Album:	No
Style:	Drone doom metal, Psychedelic stoner metal
Release date:	July 03, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Genesis
02. Anti-Gone
03. Non Blood Lore
04. Temple of Hatred
05. 鏡 -Zerkalo-
06. HxCxHxC -Parforation Line-
07. キキノウエ -Kiki No Ue-
08. Lust
09. Fundamental Error [Gudon cover]
10. Loveless
11. Interlude

Am I going to admit to having spent more time than I reasonably hoped to in trying to come up with a joke based on the album's name? NO.

What else could Boris possibly want from us? An career spanning almost 30 years, a few dozen releases, more collaborations with Merzbow than previously thought humanly possible, a band name taken from a Melvins song, and they neatly topped last year with LφVE & EVφL, which, if you remember our review of it, neatly tied up all of the three major facets of Boris' sound: "colossal, feedback-laden drone metal, groovy stoner metal, and relaxed, airy psychedelic rock". Sure, that omits the J-Pop, shoegaze, and noise, but who keeps track anyway. So naturally, everything that can be done with Boris' sound has been done and every forthcoming release will be a rehash of a previous one. Well, NO.

I haven't listened to every Boris album, but then again few people other than Boris themselves did, however I have a pretty good grasp of their sound and their discog, though not an all encompassing one. That said, listening to NO for the first time, my first reaction was "Damn, I don't remember Boris being that heavy". And that was "Genesis", which, being an instrumental, sounds most akin to what those heavy drone Boris albums usually sound like. But there was something really really different this time around. Boris have played around with drone, psychedelia, heavy stoner metal, and even sludge to some extent, but this is the first time I listen to Boris and the first word that comes to mind is "sludge". This is heavy sludge.

But do you think this is all the surprises that this album has? NO. While enough of the album has that heavy sludge sound that honestly would've been enough to make this a surprising release, most of it doesn't. Most of it is the punkiest that Boris has been. And I absolutely mean it. Most of the tracks are short, simple, fast, loud and absolutely manic. Power chords galore, shouting, and lightning fast solos. It even has that DYI ethos through being self-recorded in quarantine and self-released on Bandcamp. Throughout most of my listening I wasn't really able to assess if it was good punk or I was just awestruck that this is how Boris sound now, but I listened to it enough times and I still didn't go in favor of the latter, it's good news for NO.

There seems to be somewhat of a contrast and separation between the sludgier tracks and the punkier ones, with them mostly seemingly taken from two different records. However, it all comes together on "Loveless", a song that sadly doesn't actually have anything to do with the My Bloody Valentine album of the same name, even though Boris did cover a song from it; and it is in that song that the fast punk and heavy sludge sounds previously found on the album finally merge. And to top things off, Boris decide to end the album with a track called "Interlude" of all things, which not only goes against human decency, but also brings a third more mellow post-rock sound into an album that already had a sort of identity crisis. Well done, try integrating that one too!

I think it will take a while until we can finally say that Boris are done and they won't do anything interesting anymore. They can release a few dud and underwhelming things from time to time, but so far you always knew they have some surprise in them left.



[Note: This has been yours' truly's 300th review for Metal Storm]