Boris
Smile
BY Chris Bilton
July 09, 2008 15:07
BORIS PLAY LEE’S PALACE (529 BLOOR W) JULY 14.
Pegged as Boris’ most commercial effort to date, Smile is both a decent introduction to Japan’s most prolific doom-metal noise juggernaut and a logical evolution to their ongoing aural assaults. There’s a very clear musical lineage from the peaked-out rock of Akuma No Uta’s “Ibitsu” and the heavier parts of their 2005 masterpiece Pink though to the blues-metal grind saturating Smile — in particular the piercing guitar solos that open both “Laser Beam” and “Statement.” And Southern Lord label co-founder Stephen O’Malley’s presence on the untitled closing track draws on the shuddering drone of Boris’ previous collaboration with O’Malley’s Sunn O))), Altar. But it’s the ethereal material, like their cover of PYG’s “Flower Sun Rain” and the subtle electro pulse skittering through “My Neighbor Satan” that reveal the growth in Boris’ sonic palette. Far from a rehash of its rosy predecessor, Smile sees Boris refining their own awesomeness.
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