Reviews list for Boris - Amplifier Worship (1998)

Boris, the beloved Drone Metallers from Japan. Or rather, by now they are more of a chameleon act, but it all started here.

Personally, I’ve got a bit of a beef with Boris. Not the band itself, obviously, but the concept. You see, I love Japanese Metal. It’s an indescribable scene with some of the most unique acts in the world, ranging through every genre under the sun. They tend to have a penchant for stick-in-your-head melodies as well as boundless experimentation. Unfortunately, many of these bands never get any recognition outside their home country. Even X Japan, revered as the country’s version of The Beatles in their home, is unknown outside of metal/music nerd circles. For some reason, getting notoriety for a Japanese (Metal) band seems much more difficult than for bands in the West.

And what band struck gold? What band tops charts across websites and is beloved by the music world? Boris. The band who makes a song by playing the same four notes dragged out over 9 minutes. Or not even playing notes at all, and letting the feedback speak for itself.

Don’t get me wrong, Boris are experimental, and unique. They experiment with how boring they can possibly make a song and still get it labeled a masterpiece anyway. They’re also very unique in that they’ll put a directionless Drone Metal song on the same record as a repetitive Stoner Metal song and a *checking RYM genre voting page* Post-Rock song? In all of which almost nothing happens and they are considered loveable quirky hipsters.

If you can’t tell, this review really isn’t about Boris. It’s about my frustration with feeling out of touch. Nothing against the band… but they represent all I do not understand about the music fandom.

As many of you are probably already aware, I’ve enjoyed a long & fruitful relationship with adventurous Japanese trio Boris & regard three or four of their 2000’s releases to be genuine classics. Their back catalogue is so extensive that I’ve still got a lot to explore if I’m even to come close to understanding the full scope & breadth of their musical influence though. In saying that, I probably should have ventured towards their 1998 debut album “Amplifier Worship long before now given the general consensus that it’s somewhat of a pinnacle of drone/sludge metal as that idea is clearly so closely aligned with my personal taste profile. Even the album title just reeks of appeal for someone like myself so I’ve gone into this massive 64 minute journey with a great deal of positivity & hope.

As is usually the case with Boris records, the genre tagging for “Amplifier Worship” simply doesn’t do it justice & isn’t exactly the best representation of what you should expect to hear as there are a number of elements at play. There is definitely some Earth-inspired drone metal on offer here in the first half of opener “Huge” & the entirety of the epic 16 minute closer “Vomitself” however I don’t think that’s enough to make it a primary genre given that there are other components that are more prevalent with a Melvins style sludge metal sound being one of them. In fact, I’ve never heard Boris sound so sludgy before & I’ve gotta say that I really enjoy the filthy hardcore aggression that raises its head a few times here, particularly in the savage guitar attack & screaming vocal delivery which is as angry as you’ll hear from this band. You’ll find plenty of sludge across the first four of the five tracks but you’ll inevitably also uncover a shit-tonne of post-rock in epic excursions like “Ganbou-Ki”, “Hama” & “Kuruimizu”, enough to warrant “Amplifier Worship” being labelled as a post-sludge metal release in my opinion actually. There’s a deeply psychedelic feel to some of this material too though, so much so that I’ve found myself reaching to krautrock artists like Can for comparison on occasion which can’t be a bad thing.

The overall consistency of the tracklisting is excellent. It’s almost a completely flat line to tell you the truth with each successive track being found to be just as strong as the last. There’s definitely a lack of that knock-out blow that Boris have proven themselves to be so capable of over the years though with none of the five songs scaling the heights that we now know Boris to be capable of when they’re at the top of their game. This isn’t a major criticism mind you as “Amplifier Worship” is unlikely to disappoint many fans but it does prevent it from competing with Boris’ more complete works like “Boris At Last -Feedbacker-“, “Rock Dream”, Akuma no Uta” or “Pink”. I do slightly favour it over releases like “flood” or the first couple of “Heavy Rocks” albums though which isn’t something to be sneezed at. There’s something to be said for an approach that takes the album title quite literally. As a guitarist myself, I revel & thrive in the warm yet crushingly heavy sound of many high quality quad boxes reverberating at extreme volumes & Boris have mastered the art of creating organised pieces out of seemingly unstructured jams. They’re a very rare beast in today’s market & I’m sure will continue to offer me a lot of joy as I continue to unlock more of their massive discography for a good while yet.