''Smile'' is the fourteenth studio album by Japanese band Boris. It was released through Diwphalanx Records in early 2008 (late 2008 for the live version accordingly), featuring guest musicians Michio Kurihara of

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

and Stephen O'Malley of

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, ...

, both of whom have collaborated with Boris in the past. Shortly after this initial release, the album was released by American label

Southern Lord 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 i ...

with a slightly different track listing, different artwork (by Stephen O'Malley), and an almost entirely different sound. The first 3000 copies of this edition include a DVD containing videos for "Statement", "Pink" and "My Neighbor Satan". Notably, this release is the second Boris album to feature vocals on every track (the first, excluding any one-track albums, was '' Amplifier Worship''). Also, it delves more into experimental tendencies with a more manipulated sound, use of drum machines, and even experiments with sampled tracks (notably, "Dead Destination" is essentially "No Ones Grieve part 2" from '' The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked 2'' with additional vocals; part of the seventh song from ''

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 ...

'' is used in the untitled final track). The album can also be seen as humorous since Boris have referenced this album in an interview with Terrorizer Magazine as "un-cool" and "The sell-out album" with comical lyricism (A prime example being the song "Buzz-In" which is about the Melvins live video Salad of a Thousand Delights), an 80s look for the band themselves, and the tones of voice in some of the songs. The album charted on the Billboard

Top Heatseekers The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart at number 20.

Track listing

The different versions of ''Smile'' contain different mixes: the English version was mixed by Souichiro Nakamura, while the Japanese version was handled by You Ishihara.

Diwphalanx CD

Disk Union vinyl

Limited to 500 copies.

Southern Lord CD

Southern Lord vinyl

Several limited-run colors of the Southern Lord vinyl have been released: clear orange (7000 copies), opaque orange (1000 copies), grey (1000 copies), yellow (1000 copies), and black (3000 copies). All versions contain the same music. The mixes here are similar to the Southern Lord CD release but the duration of some tracks have been changed, in part due to the addition of two bonus tracks.

Southern Lord bonus DVD

The bonus DVD came with certain limited editions of the Southern Lord CD, limited to 3000 copies. It features three official music videos.

"Choice Cuts" Amazon exclusive drop-card

All copies of ''Smile'' sold through

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received this additional free download-only collection.

Personnel

* Takeshi -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Wata - guitar, vocals * Atsuo -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, vocals * Michio Kurihara - guitar on "My Neighbour Satan", "Flower, Sun, Rain", and "You Were Holding An Umbrella" * Stephen O'Malley - guitar on "Untitled"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smile (Boris Album) 2008 albums Boris (band) albums Southern Lord Records albums