Anna von Hausswolff’s “Iconoclasts” & North American Tour: Mar 16 - 26

For the last decade, Anna von Hauswolff, the daughter of Carl Michael von Hausswolff co-founder of the imagined country of Elgaland-Vargaland, has dealt in a solemn funereal music composed for the pipe organ of reverb decay-laden drone released on labels like City Slang and Southern Lord. Recordings like "Live at Montreux Jazz Festival" elucidate this space between a traditionally classical instrument, and her approach which shares affinities with contemporary doom metal and drone rock. It is in this zone that her studio albums yoke their eerie timbre, producing a "Doomy Epic from a Supernatural Talent", in its weave of drone-inspired 'funeral pop', with added weight and sonic gravitas from producer, Randall Dunn. Her previous album, "All Thoughts Fly", was a collection of instrumentals performed on a replica of a 17th century baroque organ in a cathedral in Gothenburg, Germany, and followed on a set of collaborations with rock titans SWANS, and doom metal band, SUNN O))). So it is that much more of an unexpected turn that the 'funeral pop' component of her music would come fully to the fore, swathed in more straightforwardly melodic structures, and the voice taking the place of the dominant instrument over that of the organ. For which von Hausswolff has enlisted the talents of an artist that Jazzwise lauded; “The music is intentionally puzzling, teased from a meltdown of tropes from jazz, groove and electronic dance music", in the multi-instrumentalist and saxophonist Otis Sandsjö. This meeting of von Hausswolff's dronescapes, and the structural punctuation of Sandsjö's hard-hitting jazz-rock, comprise the framework for "Iconoclasts" song-based album of instrumental dirge and soaring lyricism. Further rejecting some of the characterization of her doom-organ iconography, "A ‘High Priestess of Satanic Art’? This Organist Can Only Laugh", von Hausswolff brings this new pop-focused sound of an "Exhilarating, Euphoric Goth Songcraft" to a string of dates across North America, including two nights at San Francisco's Brick & Mortar. Update: Due to delays in Visa processing, the tour has been postponed until early next year. This being just one example manifest of the "Looming Crisis for the Performing Arts", for the United States under the current administration. Photo credit: Philip Svensson

Boris "Amplifier Worship Service" US Tour: Sept 25 - Oct Nov 23 | "Boris: Noise is Japanese Blues" | The Quietus

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.

Boris and Melvins “Twins of Evil” US Tour: Aug 24 - Oct 14

Showing no signs of a sedentary codification of their sound, or a deceleration of their recording or touring schedule, Boris sessions for the 2017 album "Dear" for the Sargent House label generated nearly three albums of new material. Following on this prolific period, in rapid succession they then delivered, "LφVE & EVφL" as well as a set of domestic LP reissues for Jack White's Third Man Records in 2019. In the trio of 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. Not satisfied with two albums titled "Heavy Rocks", they then created a third this year for Relapse Records, and this fall, "Boris Announce Tour with Melvins" spanning late August to mid-October. Indeed, from this evidence it's clear that, "For Boris, Heavy is a State of Being". 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. 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 new 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.

SUNN O))) new album "Pyroclasts" & West Coast Tour with Papa M: Sept 1 - 15 | Boris new album "LφVE & EVφL" & US Tour with Uniform: Aug 19 - Sept 29

At the forefront of a then new strain of Metal simply coined Doom, bands like Earth, outings by Boris, and the Northwest trio of SUNN O))) were fashioning a gargantuan and glacial sound in the late 90s to early 2000s. These bands themselves inspired by the earliest manifestations of the sound from the late 80s to early 1990s, its developmental phase heard in the music of Pentagram, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, and Trouble. While bearing cultural associations with the recent Post-Black Metal explosion, as detailed in Brad Sanders' "Untrue And International: Living in a Post-Black Metal World", for The Quietus, the offshoot of Doom in the 1990s remains it's own cloistered musical corner of that world. Touching on Doom within the larger context, Sanders' article acts as an opening unto the dark passageways of contemporary Metal's multitude of stylistic representations. These sounds further showcased in the past half-decade of The Quietus' Columnus Metallicus showcase of excellent curation, dominantly issued through all things Metal-and-beyond labels like, Hydrahead, Ipecac, Deathwish, Sargent House, Profound Lore, Season of Mist, Roadburn, Flenser, Neurot and Relapse. Seven years have elapsed since Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's SUNN O))) performed here in Seattle, they return to The Showbox this month on a series of west coast dates in support of their most recent tectonic slab of sound, "Life Metal", and forthcoming companion album, "Pryoclasts". While their presence on the west coast as a live, touring band has been scarce in recent years, they have entered into one of the most prolific collaborative phases the band has seen to date. Not only releasing the "Terrestrials" with legendary experimental Norwegian band, Ulver, they produced an album with the late 20th century singularity known as Scott Walker on "Soused". The timing of the latter particularly fortuitous, as just this year, the life of this brilliant maverick came to an end, “Pop's Great Adventurer: How Scott Walker Reached the Heart of Darkness”. In the midst of this all, somehow finding time and resources to contributing to Jóhann Jóhannsson's pounding, sensory-fraying work with Randall Dunn, on "Cosmatos’s Mock-1980s Oddball Nerd Fantasy Yarn", score for "Mandy" in 2018. This seemingly boundless well of musical and thematic inspiration plumbed in their interview with The Quietus, "Inspiration From Above and Below: The Strange World Of... SUNN O)))", and to even greater depths, for The Wire's April 2009 issue. Complete transcripts of the associated interviews with both Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson are further enhanced by SUNN O)))'s regular contributing members; Mayhem's vocal leviathan Attila Csihar, Seattle electric violin virtuoso Eyvind Kang, electronic and experimental vocalist Jessika Kenney, and Australia's all around sonic renaissance man, Oren Ambarchi.

Returning to the Northwest with much greater frequency, Sacred Bones label artist Uniform will be here for the second occasion this year following their winter tour with experimental Metal band, The Body. Hot on the heels of last year's "The Long Walk", a new collaborative album, "Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back" arrives this month. The furious soundscape of their third album (and this newest in a set of collaborations with The Body), runs the gamut of a dissonant molasses crawl, passages of substantial lurching weight, and bludgeoning epileptic hysteria. Fitting then that The Quietus' "Killing It In America: An Interview With Uniform", touches on the American genre author, and that this spastic, guttural album is inspired by a dystopic, authoritarian short story by Stephen King. In the way of their collaborators, there are few acts that fully embody the term Experimental Metal, quite to the extent of The Body. Through a small abundance of solo and collaborative albums both with Uniform, a set of blistering noise-thrash intersections with Full of Hell, and their recent "Ascending A Mountain Of Heavy Light", The Body have carved out a corpus of sounds at the vanguard of the genre's evolution. The Quietus' "Prepare For The Worst: Facing The Apocalypse With The Body" describes the doom-full trajectory that has led to this year's, "I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer". With Uniform for a night at Neumos, Japanese heavy rockers, Boris make their semi-annual return to the west with a string of Us tour dates. Showing no signs of a sedentary codification of their sound, or a deceleration of their recording or touring schedule, "For Boris, Heavy is a State of Being". Rumored at the time to be their swansong, after almost 25 years of recording and endless activity, 2017's "Dear" for Sargent House instead generated nearly three albums of vital new material. Born from this precipice, they return this fall with a new album, "LφVE & EVφL" as well as a set of domestic LP reissues for Jack White's Third Man Records in October.

Though not likely to ascend to the heights of 2013's world tour wherein they played the totality of their magisterial opus "Flood", alongside a second night of "All-Time Classics", the "LφVE & EVφL" tour still promises an evening of the heart-of-the-sun intensity Boris are known to deliver live. The most recent in a decade of semiannual live events which has seen them manifest an ever-mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, willfully dysfunctional Indie Rock, and even their own thrilling take on Dream Pop 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 "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 it's 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 interview for The Quietus the feedback-worshiping trio state, "Noise is Japanese Blues': An Interview with Boris". This summer's tour in anticipation of the new album for Third Man Records, marks a return to the territory the band 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. 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 new 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".

Bell Witch's "Mirror Reaper" & West Coast Tour | Unsane at The Highline: Dec 1 & 5

The holiday season arrives, and with it, the most culturally desolate stretch of the year. Thankfully, Seattle's paramount metal, hardcore and punk venue, The Highline have kept their calendar vital through the next month. Even with the eminent consequence of their host building's purchase by a Seattle "wine and lifestyle brand", the venue continues their strong programming into the next year. December sees a night of Philadelphia hardcore band, Plague Marks, open for Unsane, who have bolstered the duo of Chris Spencer and Dave Curran of The Cutthroats, with the addition of Vincent Signorelli of the 1990s incarnation of SWANS, into a powerful nose rock goliath. The winter tour rides on the heels of their first Southern Lord release "Sterilized", following a five year gap after 2012's Alternative Tentacles issued "Wreck". Also on the bill for December, The Highline presents a night of the darkest sounds heard issuing from the mutating offshoots of black metal. Foremost among them, Bell Witch in their new lineup with Aerial Ruin's Erik Moggridge, perform the monstrous and epic "Mirror Reaper". Born of the death of drummer Adrian Guerra, the album encompasses a passage through the Hermetic axiom "As Above, So Below", as a conceptual traversing of the dichotomy of life and death. Bridging recordings from their previous incarnation, and unused vocal tracks from that period with work of the new lineup, the album acts as a looming, Brobdingnagian titan spanning the two.

Joining Monarch on their North American tour, both Bell Witch and their opening act for the night, Usnea, were featured in this past summer's notable assembly of progressive black metal, doom and hardcore the week of Northwest Terror Fest. The festival showcasing the multitudinous offshoots of black metal's ongoing development as it has encompassed atmospheres lifted from shoegaze and spacerock, blistering eruptions of industrial percussion, electronic textures and pure noise experimentation. What may be the epitome of this cross-genre hybridization can be heard in the dynamic solar magma of guitar riffs and rhythm-play of bands like Deafheaven. With other compatriots in the sound to be found in Oathbreaker, as well as the turbulent rock of Nothing and their fusion of metal drumming and spacerock blur as heard on 2014's "Guilty of Everything". From the fringe of the genre, taking the sound down more melancholy paths, there's the crushing shoegaze blues of outfits like True Widow. Representing the more traditional signifiers of what can be defined as metal, yet taking a darker, more distended approach to atmospheric construction, bands like Krallice, Agalloch, and Pallbearer exemplify the heavier school of blackness pouring forth from the Profound Lore label. A branch of a sound and scene Brad Sanders detailed in his piece for The Quietus, "Untrue And International: Living in a Post-Black Metal World", his article acting as an excellent opening unto the dark passageways of this genre's multitude of representations. These sounds further showcased in the past half-decade of The Quietus' Columnus Metallicus excellent curation, dominantly issued on the all-things-metal-and-beyond labels Hydrahead, Ipecac, Deathwish, Sargent House, Profound Lore, Season of Mist, Roadburn, Flenser, Neurot and Relapse.

Boris reissue "Pink" with "Forbidden Songs" & US Tour: Jul 22 - Aug 26

Throughout July and August, Japanese heavy rockers, Boris make their semi-annual return to the west with a string of Us tour dates. Seattle's night in the tour with Earth, though likely to not compare with 2013's performance wherein they played the totality of their magisterial opus "Flood", alongside a second night of "All-Time Classics" will still promise an evening of the from the-heart-of-the-sun intensity Boris are known to deliver live. The past decade of semiannual tours have seen them manifest their ever mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, willfully dysfunctional Indie Rock and more recently, their own thrilling take on Dream Pop and Shoegaze. The latter we first glimpsed on their "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7" series and more recently refined on the near-perfect "Attention Please" and the more guttural Psyche assault of "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 it's 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 interview for The Quietus the feedback-worshiping trio state, "Noise is Japanese Blues': An Interview with Boris". This summer's tour is a return to the territory they carved out with 2005's "Pink" and the heights they were propelled to by the lyrical guitar squall of collaborator Michio Kurihara on the companion album "Rainbow". Typical of the abundant recording sessions which have produced each album, the new edition of "Pink" will feature 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. The March issue of The Wire recaps the trio's 25 year recording and touring process, which brings them back into contact with noise extremist Merzbow on the 150 minutes of new music appearing on the interchangeable double LP set, "Gensho". Japanese noise legend Masami Akita himself entering into a succession of recent collaborations, which The Quietus explore in their "Razor Blades in the Dark: An Interview with Merzbow".

Boris perform "Flood" and All-Time Classics US Tour: Apr 23 - May 24

Previous years for my birthday, Japan's power-Shoegaze-Pop-Metal-Psych wondertrio Boris generously gave me the triple album assault of 2011. This year I'm being given the double-night at the Crocodile wherein they play their magisterial opus "Flood" alongside a second night of All Time Classics on this North American tour of multiple-night showcases. Two nights of more of the seriously blasting of-the-sun brilliance and cynicism-crushing intensity that I've seen them deliver every time they're in town as they manifest their ever-mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, dysfunctional Bro-Rock and more recently, their own thrilling new take on Shoegaze. Yeah, the latter we first glimpsed on their "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7" series and more recently refined on the near-perfect "Attention Please" and the more guttural Psych assault of "Heavy Rocks", with that year's deluge topped with their upbeat pop-assault for the Nintendooo generation, "New Album". With 2013 we've seen a return to earlier forms with the Metal riffs of their newest "Präparat", blasting Noisecore of "Vein" and the heady Doom and Psych soundscapes of the reissued, remastered, expanded 4xCD box set "The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked: Chronicle". Making for another manically productive year for Boris, who also contributed a track to the comically titled, (this is a Japanese release, so it's ok, yes?) "Yellow Loveless" My Bloody Valentine tribute compilation. For those initiated in their hyperfluorescent joys expect to have your life changed with these two-day showcases of the spectrum of their mellifluous manifestations. For those not initiated... well... you too can expect to have your life changed with these two-day showcases of the spectrum of their mellifluous manifestations!

Thrones, House of Low Culture, Mamiffer, Dead in the Dirt, Earth & SUNN O))) - West Coast Tours: Dec 1 & 14 - 20

The west coast finally plays host to a couple of quality tours from the fringes of Doom, Drone and Experimental Metal! Beginning tonight at the Highline with a night of heavy sounds from Earth and Melvins bassist Joe Preston, as Thrones along with Hydra Head Records main man, Aaron Turner and his Mamiffer and House of Low Culture projects - the latter including SUNN O)))'s Stephen O'Malley and Luke Scarola of Old Man Gloom. Opening the night's bill, are Seattle's own dynamically heavy three-piece, Great Falls. If like me you've been bemoaning the lack of quality Metal tours coming through this city in the past year, well, December - often the most culturally desolate month of the year - is going to deliver. Deliver in even bigger ways come the 16th when the genre's premier practitioners, the aforementioned SUNN O))) play the Neptune Theatre along with Dylan Carlson's seminal low-end heavy rockers, Earth. O'Malley has been in overdrive this past year with solo and collaborative works, touring internationally and of great historical, cultural import, establishing his Recollections GRM imprint. Having already released some of the most significant works of Early Electronic Music from the French studio INA-GRM such those by it's founder Pierre Schaeffer and Italian visionary Bernard Parmegiani. That in the midst of this all O'Malley still tours/performs with his main collaborative vehicle, amazes. It's been a good few years since I saw them last, so this is going to be overdue tectonic onslaught, for which I've accumulated pretty massive anticipation. That 2007 Halloween Northwest show/tour wherein they played a secret 'enhanced' performance in Olympia, has yet to be matched. That period also contains what for me, are their greatest recorded works to date, "Black One" and the oddly magisterial "Monoliths & Dimensions" explored to the core of their depths in this 2009 interview for The Wire featuring Mayhem's vocal leviathan Attila Csihar, electronic/noise contributions from John Wiese, Seattle electric violin maestro Eyvind Kang and Australia's foremost experimental guitarist, Oren Ambarchi.
Photo credit: Frédéric Minne

Boris US Tour: Oct 8 - Nov 12

Japan's heavy rockers Boris return to US! Essential attendance for the promise of their blasting of-the-sun rock brilliance and cynicism-crushing intensity. Every time I've seen them live they've delivered the next variation on their own particular ever-mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, dysfunctional College-Rock and more recently, their own thrilling new form of Shoegaze. Yes, the latter we first briefly glimpsed on their Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" series and more recently refined on the near-perfect "Attention Please" which I had a abundance of words to say on the subject specifically the tri-album recording/release blur that was the barrage of this past summer. Anticipation is stoked for what will no doubt be some serious HEAVY ROCKING next week!

Boris' new albums "Attention Please",『New Album』& "Heavy Rocks" released May 24

Yeah! Some Summer tunes! Do I dare announce such a thing? Are we actually gonna see more than one week of Sun now that it's the end of May?? ...So who else is rocking this hard? Nobody? Ha. By rocking, I mean just that, there's all kinds of bros and chicks doing the Metal that are bringing the heavy these days, just about nobody thinks to make the rock as blastingly 'from the sun' as Boris. Not only that, but three albums of such rock blasting released simultaneously. "Attention Please" being their full-on exploration of all things Shoegaze and fuzzed-out heavy pop, yeah, pop. It's light and airy and fluorescent in exactly the way many of the "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7"series was, but more substantial in the variables played with and a good bit more rich in it's construction... and then of course there's the ladies. Wata in all her subtle, breathy Japanese is the vocal focus of this one. Curious tale in the construction of this album, as the recording sessions it was drawn from produced the Japanese-only raved-up J-pop of "New Album" and then as a bi-product, the seriously Metal/Bro Rock stylings of "Heav(ier) Rocks" which acts as a brilliant companion piece of sorts, as 'Heavy' is exactly that. A counterpoint of sorts to the fuzzed-out high altitude glide of 'Attention' where the dynamics have been turned Waaaaaaay up and the drumming, juxtaposition of the rhythm section, the Otoko on vocals and just pure riffage take front stage. Check that: "Attention Please came to be following Boris touring the world in 2008 in support of their last album, Smile. The trio set about recording new material and a new album was completed, then abandoned. The band sought to challenge themselves further, and the end results are two new albums of dramatic growth and the most powerful extension to Boris' unparalleled creativity, Attention Please and the all new Heavy Rocks (not to be mistaken for their earlier 2002 release, Heavy Rocks)." - Taken together, these albums are damn near perfection. Can't think of a better release to hit first thing as the season changes.
All three of them.

Boris, Red Sparowes & Russian Circles - US Tour : Jul 24 - Sept 5

Japanese heavier-than-heavy psych-rock outfit return to the US again for the 5th
time in a decade! Previous tours have seen them opening for Doom-Metalers SUNN 0)))
on the "Altar" tour and being the headliner with Damon & Naomi supporting their
collaborative album with Michio Kurihara, "Rainbow". This tour sees them back in the
headliner position delivering what has become less Metal, less Psych, and more just
outright BLASTING pop of the rocking variety. It's been a curious journey to observe,
from their earliest Melvins & Earth (they derived their name from a Melvins track)
inspired Doom-tunes as heard on "AbsoutEgo" and "Amplifier Worship" to the Psych/Bro
Rock of "Mabuta No Uta" and "Heavy Rocks (Orange)" through the quiet, yet epic, finger
-picking Folkish styles of "Flood" to the outright Psyche Pop of the aforementioned
"Rainbow" and "Pink" to the most recent mutant strains of fluorescent brutal Pop of
"Smile" and almost violent-Shoegaze of the recent "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7"
series.They've delivered some of the most completely passionately delirious concert
experiences (and crushingly loudest too) I've ever witnessed, so I expect no less
this time. Fans of Doom Metal, Heavy-Psych, epic Rock ala Grails/ Explosions in
the Sky, Shoegaze, and anything just damn loud, vital and hysterical you can do
with a electric guitar, bass and drums - take note!

Link to Southern Lord Label's - Boris US Tour site

Link to Official Boris site

Link to Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" Series site