is a Japanese rock band that draws variously from styles such as

sludge metal Sludge metal (also known as sludge doom or simply sludge) is an Extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of doom metal and hardcore punk. The genre generally includes slow tempos, down-tuned guitars and nihilis ...

, drone,

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

, and

minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

. Formed in 1992 in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, the band is composed of drummer Atsuo, guitarist/bassist Takeshi, and guitarist/keyboardist Wata. All three members sing. Boris has released more than 20 studio albums on various labels around the world, as well as a variety of live albums, compilations, EPs, singles, and collaborative albums. They have collaborated with acts such as

Sunn O))) Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American drone metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. The band is known for its distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, ...

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

, Keiji Haino, and guitarist Michio Kurihara.

History

Boris was originally a four-piece band with Atsuo on lead vocals, Wata on guitar, Takeshi on bass, and Nagata on drums. The band is named after a song of the same name on the

Melvins Melvins (sometimes the Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Primarily a trio, they have also performed as a quartet, with eith ...

album '' Bullhead''. Boris's debut album '' Absolutego'' was released in 1996 on their own record label Fangs Anal Satan. Nagata departed in 1996 and Atsuo switched to drums, while Wata expanded her duties to lead guitar and keyboards, and Takeshi took on bass and rhythm guitar duties on a double-necked instrument of his own design. All three adopted lead vocal duties, and the band has remained a three-piece ever since.''Altar'' liner notes (Daymare 3LP pressing) In Japan, Boris release most of their music on the indie label Inoxia Records. Though relatively unknown in their home country, a series of reissues of their early albums on the American label

Southern Lord Records Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It initially specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to ...

caused a surge of popularity in North America. Boris also collaborates with other artists regularly, first on the 1998 album '' Black: Implication Flooding'' with experimental musician Keiji Haino. They have released seven collaborative albums with noise artist

, and have released collaborative albums with international artists like

and

Ian Astbury Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist, frontman and a founding member of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury fronted the short-lived band Holy Barbarians ( ...

. Their international popularity was bolstered by their 2005 album ''

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

'', which was met with considerable critical praise and a strong response from music fans when reissued in the US on Southern Lord. ''

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

'' magazine and ''

SPIN Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' magazine both named it one of 2006's best albums. The album also topped the metal section of Canadian magazine ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

''s 2006 Reader's Poll, and it was named in the top 10 of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

's Top 50 Records of 2006. They also appeared on the

avant-garde metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, art metal and experimetal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde music, avant-garde elements, including non-stan ...

soundtrack to

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

's film '' The Limits of Control'' in 2009. Regarding Boris, Jarmusch said that "what's really remarkable is when they play live they're in the mode, in a way, of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

musicians, not structurally or musically, but the way they listen to what the others are doing and build on it. Each time they play something it's obviously different, every time." Boris focus a lot of their time on touring. In an interview, Atsuo said: Boris received additional international exposure when they opened for

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

on part of the 2008 segment of the Lights in the Sky tour. From 2011 to 2017, they released several albums on Sargent House Records, and continue to reissue previous albums in new formats. In 2017, the band's 25th anniversary, they considered retirement after one final album. However, a successful songwriting and recording process for that album, ''

Dear Dear(s) or The Dears may refer to: Manga * Dear (manga), ''Dear'' (manga), a 2002–2007 Japanese manga series by Cocoa Fujiwara * ''DearS'', a 2002–2005 Japanese manga series by Peach-Pit, and a 2004 anime series and visual novel *''Dear+'', a ...

'', encouraged the band to continue. While self-isolating during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Boris self-released the rock-oriented album '' NO'' and the ambient album '' W'', with the two constituting a project called ''NOW''. Their third album titled '' Heavy Rocks'', featuring explorations of hard rock and heavy metal sounds, was released in August 2022. During an American tour to support the album, drummer Atsuo adopted the role of frontman (which he had rarely done since the 1990s), performing most lead vocals, while Mike Engle of the band Crawl performed as guest drummer. In December 2022, Boris released their third studio album of the year, '' Fade'', which focuses on drone metal and appeared with no prior notice.

Musical style and equipment

Throughout their career, Boris have made deliberate efforts to avoid a strong association with any musical style. In particular, they do not consider themselves a heavy metal band despite frequently being categorized as such. In an interview, drummer Atsuo stated: "Having some kind of preconceived message or theme is very boring to me. It becomes a crutch. Just say what you want to say."The wide variety of genres used by reviewers to describe Boris's music include

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

post-metal Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal music, heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis (band), Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture (music), te ...

, drone metal,

psychedelic music Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as Dmt, DMT, Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, mescaline, ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

, psychedelic metal, and

stoner rock Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sl ...

. While they first emerged as a sludge metal band with strong

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

influences, their subsequent releases have employed elements of a wide variety of genres, including

drone music Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre of music that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters called '' drones''. It is typically characterized by lengthy compositions featuring relativel ...

, old-school industrial music,

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

acid rock Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage rock, garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelia, psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psyc ...

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie rock, indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion (music), distortion and effects, a ...

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such ...

J-pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

, and

crust punk Crust punk (also known as stenchcore or simply crust) is a fusion genre of anarcho-punk and extreme metal that originated in the early to mid-1980s in England. Originally, the genre was primarily mid-tempo, making use of metal riffs in a stri ...

. For example, the band's debut album '' Absolutego'' featured a "65-minute track of oozing, slow motion, Melvins-inspired drone rock/metal," while its follow-up '' Amplifier Worship'' incorporated psychedelia and

jam band A jam band is a musical group whose concerts and live albums substantially feature improvisational "jam session, jamming". Typically, jam bands will play variations of pre-existing songs, extending them to musical improvisation, improvise ove ...

influences. Their third album ''

Flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

'' incorporated elements from drone. '' Akuma no Uta'' and ''

'' engaged in different stylistic experimentation, including shoegazing, stoner rock, and

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

. ''

Vein Veins () are blood vessels in the circulatory system of humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are those of the pulmonary and feta ...

'' (2007) was released in "Hardcore" and "Noise" versions, whereas '' New Album'' experimented with

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

and dream pop. The album ''

Noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

'' featured elements from

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock Music genre, genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, particularly in Seattle and Music of Olympia, Washington, O ...

music. Boris uses many different effects pedals, amplifiers, and other guitar accessories while performing live. Wata uses an

E-bow The EBow is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It was invented by the American guitarist Greg Heet in 1969 and introduced in 1976. The EBow uses a pickup and a magnetic feedback circuit to ...

to achieve bow-like sounds or to manipulate feedback; this device is held in the hand, like a pick, but relies on a magnetic field vibration to move the guitar's strings. Wata also occasionally plays an

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

and keyboards in concert. Takeshi typically plays a double-necked bass/guitar live, which allows him to play both rhythm guitar during the band's lengthier tracks as well as bass guitar during their more traditional tracks, without needing to switch instruments. They also play with extremely low tunings, such as A# standard, to achieve a heavier sound, Takeshi used a three octaves tuning for the music "Loveless", from the album No. In the studio, Boris records on analog equipment. They use minimal overdubs, recording mostly live.

Members

Current members

*Takeshi – vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar (1992–present) *Wata – vocals, lead guitar, keyboards (1992–present) *Atsuo – vocals (1992–present), drums, tambourine, electronics (1996–present)

Former members

*Nagata – drums (1992–1996)

Support/touring musicians

* Michio Kurihara – guitars (2007–2012) *Mike Engle – drums (2019, 2022)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums * '' Absolutego'' (1996) * '' Amplifier Worship'' (1998) * ''

'' (2000) * '' Heavy Rocks'' (2002) * '' Akuma no Uta'' (2003) * '' Boris at Last -Feedbacker-'' (2003) * ''The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked'' (2004) * ''

Dronevil ''Dronevil'' is the eighth studio album by the Japanese experimental band Boris. It is a double album: the first LP, ''Drone'', showcases a more ambient sound, while the second LP, ''Evil'', showcases a heavy guitar-oriented doom metal sou ...

'' (2005) * ''Soundtrack from the Film Mabuta no Ura'' (2005) * ''

'' (2005) * ''The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked 2'' (2006) * ''The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked 3'' (2006) * ''Vein'' (2006) * ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

'' (2008) * '' New Album'' (2011) * '' Heavy Rocks'' (2011) * '' Attention Please'' (2011) * ''

Präparat ''Präparat'' is the eighteenth studio album by the Japanese experimental band Boris. The album was announced along with two other releases The album features the participation of musicians like Michio Kurihara and Gisèle Vienne. It was prev ...

'' (2013) * ''

'' (2014) * ''The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Extra'' (2014) * ''

Urban Dance Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically fro ...

'' (2015) * '' Warpath'' (2015) * ''

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

'' (2015) * ''

'' (2017) * ''

Love & Evol ''Love & Evol'' (stylized as ''LφVE & EVφL'') is the twenty-fifth studio album by Japanese experimental band Boris, released 4 October 2019 on Third Man Records. The band describes the release as two distinct but interconnected works, bearing t ...

'' (2019) * '' NO'' (2020) * '' W'' (2022) * '' Heavy Rocks'' (2022) * '' Fade'' (2022) Collaboration albums * ''Black: Implication Flooding'' (w/ Keiji Haino, 1998) * ''Megatone'' (w/

, 2002) * ''

04092001 ''04092001'' is a collaborative live album between Japanese experimental metal band Boris and noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinc ...

'' (w/ Merzbow, 2004) * '' Sun Baked Snow Cave'' (w/ Merzbow, 2005) * ''

Altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

'' (w/

, 2006) * ''

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

'' (w/ Michio Kurihara, 2006/2007) * '' Walrus/Groon'' (w/ Merzbow, 2007) * ''

Rock Dream ''Rock Dream'' is a collaborative live album between Japanese band Boris (band), Boris and Japan noise musician Merzbow. Production ''Rock Dream'' was recorded live in November 2006 at Tokyo's Earthdom festival. Style Thom Jurek of AllMusic noted ...

'' (live, w/ Merzbow, 2007) * ''Cloud Chamber'' (w/ Michio Kurihara, 2008) * '' BXI'' (w/

, 2010) * '' Klatter'' (w/ Merzbow, 2011) * ''EROS'' (w/ Endon, 2015) * '' Gensho'' (w/ Merzbow, 2016) * ''Refrain'' (w/ Z.O.A., 2020) * '' 2R0I2P0'' (w/ Merzbow, 2020) * ''Bright New Disease'' (w/

Uniform A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency serv ...

, 2023) * '' Hello There'' (w/

Coaltar of the Deepers Coaltar of the Deepers are an alternative rock band from Japan. They formed in May 1991. Although primarily influenced by shoegaze and post-rock sound, their sound incorporates musical elements as diverse as thrash metal, electronica, neo-acoust ...

, 2024)

References

External links

Official website
*
Southern Records: Boris BioThe StonerRock.com Guide to Boris
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boris 1992 establishments in Japan Japanese avant-garde metal musical groups Japanese doom metal musical groups Japanese experimental rock groups Japanese musical trios Japanese noise rock groups Japanese psychedelic rock music groups Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups from Tokyo Sacred Bones Records artists Southern Lord Records artists Third Man Records artists Drone metal musical groups Mixed-gender musical trios