Amplifier Worship

Ahhhh, Boris…I just love this band. Placed right in between the monolithic post-rockish Flood and the ear-ripping drone masterpiece Absolutego, Amplifier Worship is another part in the genre-hopping madness of Boris. It’s as if in the beginning, they just spun a roulette wheel with some of the sickest metal subgenres and made an amazing album belonging to that subgenre. Well, unlike Absolutego and Flood, this is a sludge album (and what beautiful sludge it is). But like Absolutego and Flood, this album just kills with heaviness.

Just imagine a heavy, viscous fluid just invading your senses and you’ll get a sense of what the guitars in Amplifier Worship is like. Wata may just be my favorite part of Boris (I think I’m in love with her). It can be deceptively gentle and soft at times too, with psychedelic and hypnotic reverb just caressing your ears. The guitar tone has the fuzzy feel of many stoner bands, but this isn’t completely a stoner album, with these sludgy riffs. The songs themselves highly vary, with some songs (like the beginning off Hama) being pretty rocking and upbeat, and others (like Ganbou-Ki) being absolutely slow and hypnotic.

I can’t say much for the musicianship, not being a player of any instrument, but Takeshi and co. seem pretty competent for each of their respective instruments. The drums are definitely something that deserves a mention. Not only do they compliment the rest of the music, but they serve as an integral part of the music. The bass is also something that isn’t to be sneezed at. Takeshi does a wonderful job at creating a heavy bass that isn’t overwhelming, but isn’t inaudible either. For example, the bass beatdown at about 1:33 in Kuruimizu is just mind-shittingly good.

Oh and the vocals, I almost forgot about them. Apparently, there are two people on vocal duty, so I can’t tell whether they’re Takeshi’s or Atsuo’s, but they are quite powerful. I remember reading that Boris was highly influenced by the Japanese Hardcore scene, and this is definitely most prominent in the vocals. They are sporadically placed throughout the album, but they are some of the most tortured and menacing vocals Boris have ever produced. It’s quite a shame, really, that Boris haven’t used their hardcore vocals again (well maybe on Vein, but I haven’t heard it yet).

All these elements synthesize into one leviathan of an album. It creates a very diverse and immense sonicscape that you immerse every time you press the play button on your CD player. Although, in regards to genre, Amplifier Worship is different to Flood and Absolutego, one can certainly hear stylistic similarities (for example the droning in Vomitself and the soft guitar tone in Kuruimizu, similar to Flood II) among the three Boris albums. I’d say this is an essential purchase for anyone into the Melvins, Sleep, or any stoner/sludge bands, for that matter. Definitely a highlight in Boris’s eccentric catalog. To any Boris virgins, I’d pick up this, Pink, and Rainbow.

Highlight- Kuruimizu (but really, the entire album is a highlight)

I'm just going to lay this right down. Amplifier Worship, in my eyes, is easily the best thing Boris have done. And because Boris, even at their worst or least imaginative, are probably the best thing to come out of Japan, musically, that's saying quite a lot. When listening to Boris, I started at a weird place (2007's Smile), and then worked my way back here for my second taster, so that may have influenced my view on this album, since Smile wasn't TOO great. Regardless, it'll always have a special place in my CD rack.

From the attention-grabbing opening seconds on Huge, up to the fade on the end of Vomitself, this album has the power to put you in one big trance. It can be crushingly heavy, heart-wrenchingly beautiful, and sludgy enough to put Buzz Osbourne to shame. Surprisngly, it works well together. Technical death metal and atmospheric black metal have shown us that even the most extreme musical genres can sit well with mellow sections quite nicely. However, you wouldn't think this with sludge and doom. Not only does Amplifier Worship smash through that, it smashed through it over 11 years ago, way before doom was appreciated enough to branch it out by experimenting with it. It just goes to show that even on their second album, Boris were simply doing it for themselves, and were having fun with it.

Huge opens, like I said, by slamming you into submission with subharmonics even below Sunn O)))'s. After a few seconds of Wata whispering, the chords blast through the speakers. After a while, the chords begin to get...not repetetive, but slightly tame compared to what they used to be. They don't progress much, so over time you adapt to their abrasiveness. Just when you think you're fine with it, Atsuo tears in with some incredibly heavy vocals (at least for Boris, anyway), once again making you feel out of your depth in this huge sonic soundscape the band are laying out before you.

The album pretty much follows this pattern throughout its entirity. Takeshi, Wata and Atsuo keep throwing obstacles at you to stop it from going stale. Or maybe it's just to keep you on your toes. Probably both. Some of them are REALLY surprising, like two lenghty rhythm sections in Ganbou-Ki and Hama, respectively. The latter even gets quite funky, with some sunny stoner-esque grooves and psychedelic reverb from Wata's E-Bow.

Speaking of psychedelic vibes, the end of Kuruimizu is simply divine. As the song ends after 5 minutes, you wonder how they're going to fill 9 and a half minutes up. Then this lone riff, played out of the silence sounds. The same few notes, over and over. The more it is played, the richer in tone it gets. Then as it starts to sound thick and trebly, Takeshi's bass plays a similar riff in the background. And then Atsuo comes in with some delicate brushes of the drums. By the time you've noticed the gradation, you've realized you've just been sitting in a trance for almost ten minutes.

Now, while reviewing this album, it's be foolish of me not to comment on the painfully obvious Melvins influence. Honestly, the album just sounds like the best bits of the Melvins songs Honey Bucket, Boris (obviously) and Lysol strung together, and spread out over an hour. If you're not a fan of the genre, it might get repetetive. If you're a fan of doom, sludge and drone, you'll know that it's no bad thing, and this is simply an amazing record.

One last note, as usual- the packaging. I know it's not necessary, but I'm not giving or taking points away for it. I absolutely adore it. In fact, it probably backs up the belief that this is one of my favourites of all time. The over-the-top colours, the frog skeletons, the awesome typography and the humourous photos of the band playing with a very cute frog plush toy all make it a package to behold. That's not even bringing up the see-through exterior of the CD tray, the awesome piece of literature that hides behind it (which states that frogs are essentially the greater evil, as opposed to Satan) or the fold-out liner notes. Even better, if you get the special edition, it comes in a green jewel case, with a gummy worm in the spine.

In fact, after I've written all of this, I must reiterate. This really is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Boris has gained quite a reputation for genre hopping as they continue to surprise their fans from album to album. The soothing sounds of Flood to the nonstop energetic stoner metal riffs of Heavy Rocks, they have always had a way with doing something totally different, but still maintaining their own sound, and of course, doing it well. This album in particular is probably one of my favorites. It seems they were only briefly in this style, with only this album and a few splits, and I suppose Absolutego had some elements that this album does, but none of these splits, or Absolutego, have been able to live up to the fury of this album. This is my opinion, anyways.

The opening track of this album sort of shows their influence from bands like Melvins and Earth. Pure riff. I believe Boris have been trained well, for this riff seems to even surpass their masters in the art of pure heaviness. The tone, the feedback, everything about it is so heavy that your speakers wince in fear as the riff explodes after the soft whisper of Wata.

The first track is simple enough. It’s metal. But the next couple of tracks after this one, as heavy as they are, seem to be inspired by that strangeness that the Melvins have. The second track has a long and groovey bass line, with that funky beat that goes on as Wata produces terrifying sounds, and then all of this fades away…and come back again with powerful vehemence. This happens quite often on this album, the explosive opening, to the fading, which always seems to lead to a colossal, angry return.

The fourth track of the album is a little different then the others. Its very stoner metal. I would say it was inspired by High on Fire, but I don’t think they had an album out at this point in time. It’s probably the best track on the entire album. This track, as most of them do, fades away into a pretty bass line, with an echoing guitar and echoing drums over, and fades into the final drumless drone track, Vomitself. I would say this album was influenced by Sunn O))), but they didn’t really have an album out, either. So I suppose we have to give credit to the Melvins and Earth for this one. Or maybe not. Maybe Boris is just that creative. Ah, well. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that this album, regardless of who inspired it, is quintessential for any drone, sludge, or stoner fan.


Highlights of the album: the entire thing.

Wow, is this crazy. Well, yeah, of course it is (Small note: THIS was released in 1998, as Sunn 0))) were releasing their Grimmrobe Demos. Make a comparison and see the brilliance of this band). The first 30 seconds are made of silence, then a kind of chirp (?) is heard louder and louder, until exploding into a damaged feedback panorama that aligns its noises to form a high pitched fuzzy line.
After this brief but infinitely violent introduction, a very slow and ominous doom riff raises its head from the bag of feedback. It is for sure one of the most die-hard jamming sections of doom metal. Around the 2 minute mark, everything gets more and more dense, with another mind melting monsteriff; the cool part is when the feedback kicks in stronger. It brings to mind an overwhelming vacuum. Until the fifth minute, where the drums start drumming and the vocalist starts vocalizing (screaming his lungs out in this case). I'm not too fond of the vocals on some tracks of this album. Anyway, Melvins are the closest comparison to this track. Everything is grinding and relentless until the last seconds when everything crashes into feedback again.
This is the start of the second track and one of my favourite cuts on this, Ganbou-Ki. A VERY monotonous and sludgy riff, which would have made Eyehategod shiver, lasts until when the constipated dude starts chanting or doing something like that, anyway. I'm curious only if the sound in the background is about the others chanting or the guitar? Don't know. Anyway, it might be exhausting to some untrained ears. Well, the monsteriffing continues, fortunately with not too many vocals, and WHAT? The drummer is speeding up! Yep, they can do this too! A "jungle beat" is unleashed, followed closely by pulsating bass lines. The drone keeps up in this fashion for almost 6 minutes, everything gets more and more silent... until they begin with an, umm... let's say exotic, melancholic and hazy riff over the jungle pounding. The track finishes with the first section being repeated. Shit, those vocals are annoying me again.
Then it's time for the proper speedy track, Hama, to move on. Fact is, that I wasn't too attracted by this track. What a rhythm! This is 100 percent Gladiator by Jesus Lizard, same thumping style. Vocals intended to do something hardcorish, and they managed. Annoying me again. The beginning riff is damn cool in its own way, but the middle section is not too brilliant to me; continous drumming with bass hums getting louder and louder. Well, the distorted wah-wah like riff that comes after is a good reward for the patience, but the ending lacks the intensity that I desired.
Kuruimizu, the fourth track, is my most favourite on this album. The first two minutes contain an upbeat jamming session with some mesmerizing riffing, nice and more easily bearable screaming, even a lead, then everything gets slow. Really slow. They keep a single riff on the board, and they start using clean guitar after several bass only moments. The clean riff is accompanied only by drums at the beginning, but more and more dizzying notes start fading in. What should I say, I had a great sleep several times when listening to this, but also when awake I could fully appreciate its frighteningly hypnotic potential; you could swear that you have been thrown in space, planets are giant flowers with bread rockets flying over, and Earth has turned to an elephant, total snifforama. Music defeats pills!
Everything heats up for the final track, which is... Vomitself. Yeah, the guitar sound is pretty much like, bringing to my mind a massive toilet. The riffing style reminds me of Death Becomes You from Sunn 0))) and it's as spectacular and great as that one. The track is pretty dynamic all the way (dynamic, I mean it about the riffs which change rather fast; the rhythm is inhuman and it could kill even a snail) and I like a lot the chanted vocals, and the ending is also interesting. Despite consisting of a single repeated note, the feedback is the name of the game. Overall, this is a VERY trippy, vertigo-inducing journey into the world of monolithic sounds.
Thanks for this, Boris! Keep the drone alive! 8 year old album and still didn't lose shit from its power