Boris

Heavy Rocks (Sargent House)
Attention Please (Sargent House)
New Album (Inoxia)

As if forging an alternate history, Boris’ Heavy Rocks shares a title and comparable artwork with the Japanese outfit’s 2002 LP, a classic power trio rendering of modern doom metal. That’s where similarities end. Heavy Rocks (2011) improves on the glam thrash of previous studio release Smile (2008) with two centerpiece epics, three-act torrential ballad “Missing Pieces” and “Aileron,” a 12-minute glacial drone that’s nearly a sequel to Pink‘s “Farewell.” There are misfires (speed-metal chaser “Czechoslovakia”), but the bottom-heavy “Tu, La La” lets the Led out. Attention Please offers a full-length extension of Boris’ more pop-oriented material, except with petite guitarist Wata lending her narcotic coo to its shoegaze reveries (“Spoon”) and cinematic passages (“See You Next Week”). The Japanese version, New Album, produces the ultimate fun-house mirror effect: weirder and heavier, with killer alternate tracks and more dynamic sonic tinkering, like the electro-shock revisioning of Heavy Rocks‘ “Jackson Head.” Centerpiece “Pardon?,” a slowcore bloom of rippling Frippertronics, compensates for the import-only pricing, though a slightly altered American version arrives next month. (FFF Nite: Fri., 11:15pm, Red 7; Sun., 7pm, Black stage)

(Heavy Rocks) ***

(Attention Please) **.5

(New Album) ***.5

This article appears in November 4 • 2011.

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