Boris – Heavy Rocks (2011) [Sargent House] // Grade: B

Boris is one of those bands that constantly deliver off-the-charts sounds without any warning. Their newest album, Heavy Rocks comes right into that stoner-den niche that I admire so much about their sound. As the title implies, it’s heavy and it rocks. So why even bother with a review? Because Boris is never, ever, ever that cut and dry. The small nuances in their albums make for listening experiences, not just experiments in a genre.

But what is a genre anyway? The broad stigmas attached with “stoner doom” and “experimental” limit the experience of Heavy Rocks. You’ve really gotta peer into each track deeply to uncover the true intent of the sound and rhythm. All that is fine and dandy but with an opener like “Riot Sugar”, it’s easy to see how Boris often gets pigeon-holed into the stoner doom genre. It opens up to some trippy-ass riffage and heavy as shit drums, all intertwined with the same dreamy and sedated vocals you’ve come to expect from the band.

So where are those nuances? Turn on “Leak -Truth,yesnoyesnoyes-”. A twangy and idiosyncratic compilation of sounds. This homogenius mixture of riffs and tunes are forced into a blender with some digi synths and viola!, you’ve got a head-scratcher. Where did they come up with this? Atsuo, Takeshi, and Wata are really pushing the envelope here, harkening back to Dinosaur Jr. and the Melvins. Maybe it’s the perfect segue into the up-beat, psych-punk track “Galaxians”. Boris has really tuned into all the little trinkets of radness from the 90′s on this album. But then they throw in a bit of dance-punk, circa early 2000′s with “Jackson Head” and that’s the only only track I dislike on Heavy Rocks.

It can’t be a Boris album without a time-stretcher. “Missing Pieces” is the second-longest track. Coming in at over 12-minutes, it’s hard to tell where they’re going with this one. It’s sedated, cold, dark and ronery, oh so ronery. Coming off that three-legged mutt is “Key”, a quick and beautiful instrumental track. Here’s where it goes all array, lacking any real direction. “Window Shopping” is more of that stoner rock feel. Fuzzy riffs, heavy and fast-paced surfer drums are overlaid with some abstract and distorted vocals. Is it poppy? Sure. Is it catchy? Meh? I dunno how to characterize this one.

From there on out, the hodge-podge and quilted sound continues to throw in curve-balls. “Tu, La La” and “Aileron” are beautiful tracks with the latter bringing in some epic shoe-gazy sounds. Finally, the last track, “Czechoslovakia”, starts out heavy as fuck. This beast means business and it’s a shame that it’s only over a minute. I’m a pretty predictable guy aren’t I? The heavy and fast-paced shit always gets me and hearing Boris do thrash is rad as shit! As a whole, Heavy Rocks is a healthy mixture of influencial sounds that might not behave accordingly as your expectations but still delivers on all fronts. Try to listen to it thinking “if Boris made an album that pulled in influences from all over, what would it sound like?” and that’s my best advice.

- Prolly