Amplifier Worship

Amplifier Worship is one of many Magnum Opuses from the Japanese Death Squad known to many as Boris. Whats best about each Boris release is that each one is different from the next, yet they all maintain a certain signature sound that makes it a Boris album. While I am partial to their shorter bursts of punk and thrash and also their Sabbath-style meltdowns, it is the long winding and often crushing passages of an album like this that makes me feel happy to love metal. This release isn't for the impatient; the first song, Huge, is just that, a huge lumbering beast that slowly unfolds over 9 minutes, beginning with a repeated sample it is then interupted by an amp crash which morphs into low-end feedback and moves into a glacially paced tectonic motion of thick ass guitar rumble. It is a sonic equivalent of watching the world melt in front of you. this is only the first 5 minutes too. Around that mark, things start to swirl in the background a little, and with the twinkling of a cymbal and a distended guitar note the hammer falls. Crushing drums and tortured screaming overwhelm at a whopping 20 BPM. Haha! This is thick as molasses hell, and it just gets better with the next track. I am going to spare you a track by track description, if you really care you can go by amazon.com and see what I wrote there. It consisted of a beast being born (1st track), destroying the world (tracks 2-4) and leaving nothingness in its wake (track 5). Amplifier Worship is a fitting name as the majority of the time is seems like Boris are trying to melt their amps with distrotion and feedback, but never has a metal album been so engrossing and yet utterly bleak and terrifying at the same time.

Do check out Southern Lord Records and while youre at it, make sure to stop by Boris' homepage on Inoxia. And if you need more proof of the genius of this band check out amazon.com for a bunch of glowing reviews of most of their records.