Boris - Smile

Japanese noise-metal power-trio Boris is a band of longevity, having played for more than 15 years and released comparable amount of albums, to say nothing of assorted collaborations and split-releases. Outside their homecountry, Boris only gained wider attention with their 2005 album Pink. The band has an interesting concept about their albums: whenever the band name is written as uppercase on the covers, we have a more or less straight rock/metal record. Lowercase Boris however indicates a more experimental direction. As one can tell from the album cover, Smile is more rocking than avant-gardist record. There are less stoner-rock/doom-metal elements to be found than before. Instead, the band offers more compact and focused rock attacks like "BUZZ-IN", but also a fair bit of psych-outs as well as sampling and sound manipulation often bordering on industrial. Smile is fairly accessible record, but still a far cry from conventional rock&roll.

*This review was published in Estonian in a journal called Postimees. This is the English translation