Review by SilentScream213 for Boris - Akuma no Uta (2003)

“Why did the bear sing to the rattlesnake?”

“I dunno, why?”

“Because it was Thursday!”

The two start to laugh heartily. And then, one by one, everyone around them begins laughing. The laughing evolves into hysteric hollering and cheering, and everyone in the room seems to concede that this was the funniest and best joke they’ve ever heard.

But I’m not laughing. I don’t get the joke. And it’s not because I missed some crucial detail, some hidden setup. No, it’s just because the joke doesn’t make sense to me. Really, I can’t fathom how it makes sense to ANYONE. But everyone else loves it. Is it just the bandwagon effect? Herd mentality? Did people start laughing just because they saw others laughing, or did they really think the joke was THAT funny?

And that’s how I feel about Akuma no Uta. Well, Boris in general, basically, but especially Akuma no Uta. Akuma no Uta is Stoner Metal with really bad production that is played decently enough. It’s pretty empty, with none of the psychedelic synths that can make Stoner music interesting. Only three people perform and it doesn’t sound like they overlay any extra layers, so the music is minimal and shallow sounding. They jam on a few tracks, and they’re okay at it, nothing transcendental. It doesn’t have any good riffs. The drumming is pretty fun, I guess. The lyrics are cryptic and the vocals are nothing special. It literally sounds like a group of friends started jamming in their garage and recorded it the same day. Not an exceptionally talented group of friends, just an average group of friends. 

But in the eyes of the world, this is a top 5 Stoner Metal album of all time. I have a sneaking suspicion that if this album were not released by Boris but instead by a band no one’s heard of from a country that isn’t cool (like the USA or England) no one would care about this. But I live in a world that worships Boris, so I guess this is the peak of Stoner Metal.