The Japanese noise-rock trio Boris continue to show no signs of a sedentary codification of their sound, or a deceleration of their recording or live schedule as they return to Seattle on the current "Amplifier Worship Service" tour. Just this last year, finding that they were not satisfied with two albums titled "Heavy Rocks", they created a third album sharing this title for Relapse Records, and this fall, for the 25th anniversary of their influential “Amplifier Worship” a new edition will be reissued through Third Man Records. Quite simply, "For Boris, Heavy is a State of Being". This is all following on the abundance born of the sessions for the 2017 album "Dear" for the Sargent House label, which generated nearly three albums of new material. Then, in rapid succession they delivered, "LφVE & EVφL" as well as a set of domestic LP reissues for Third Man Records in 2019. In the five years since, they released the stellar "NO" on their own label, a collaboration with post punk band, Uniform, and the dub-inspired release, "W" both for Sacred Bones. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, they spoke on the subjects of the, "Making of NO, Pandemic Existence, and the Uncertain Future of Touring", and generated a new work that might be considered an exercise in, "Extreme Healing: 'W' By Boris". Prior to this period, the March 2016 issue of The Wire recaps the trio's decades-long recording and touring process, which brings them back into contact with legendary noise extremist Merzbow on the 150 minutes of music appearing on the interchangeable double LP set, "Gensho". Its depths sounded by Masami Akita in his interview for The Quietus, "Razor Blades in the Dark: An Interview with Merzbow", which acts as a preface of sorts for their second studio album collaboration "2R0I2P0", released in 2020 on Relapse. In doing so, "Boris and Merzbow Made a Joint Album. With Options.".
The most recent tour marks a decade of semiannual domestic visits to North America in which they have manifested an ever-mutating mix of doom metal, heavy psych, warped J-pop, willfully dysfunctional indie rock, and even their own thrilling take on dreampop and shoegaze. The latter we first glimpsed on their "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7" series, which was then refined on "Attention Please", from which they then pivoted to the guttural psyche assault of the second "Heavy Rocks". This prolific inundation culminating in the tri-album recording release of late 2011, topped by their upbeat pop-assault of the generically titled, "New Album". Following this deluge was the more atmospheric Metal-oriented tour album "Präparat" and the mainstream riffs of 2014's "Noise", with its pronounced college-rock sensibilities. The band themselves perceive this stylistic shift as just another stage in their assimilation of influences towards an all-inclusive Boris sound, in an interview for The Quietus the feedback-worshiping trio state, "Noise is Japanese Blues': An Interview with Boris". The sonic realm which they have created for themselves was first carved out with 2005's "Pink", and the brand of lyrical guitar squall of collaborator Michio Kurihara heard on the companion album "Rainbow". Typical of the abundant recording sessions which have produced each album, the recent domestic reissue of "Pink" features a previously unreleased companion album of "Forbidden Songs". Comprising overflow from this era that ended up on the cutting room floor, their interview for Invisible Oranges delves into this phase of high production and new inspirations.
