Boris – W

 

 

Boris – W
Sacred Bones / Konkurrent – 2022
Rock, Post, Experimental, Alternative, Avant-Garde, Metal
Rated: ***

I could have sworn we mentioned Boris before; cause we’ve always been following whatever weird stuff these Japanese freaks come up with. But apparently we only got around to mentioning their 2017 release Dear. And as we’ve only just come to grips with their January release W; they go and re-release their 2019 album called 1985. Reminding us once again about the insane amount of releases the band has released in the almost thirty years of their existence. And all of those releases are very different, listening to them in a row will make you hop, skip an jump through all sorts of rock and metal releases, with only one common denominator; it has something avant-garde, experimental and artsy. And if there is a big surprise on their new album W, it might be the fact that it sort of feels like a continuation of their 2020 record NO. Haunting, murky and misty atmospheres swirling up towards even more abstract takes on what everyone might constitute as music; whispering voices and rustling noises that wisp away whenever a metallic interlude crashes through and oscillates until the fog becomes dark and twisted clamor. Ambient doom lurking around the corner to be instilled into all the drone, the shoegaze and slow hypnotic drowse that is most present on W. But don’t forget they can also do punk sludge… Be ready to be jolted wide awake!

(Written by JK)

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Thou – Magus

Thou – Magus

Konkurrent/Sacred Bones – 2018

Metal, Doom, Sludge

Rated: ***

As the few of you crazies that take the time to read the HiVe stuff every now and again know, I’m not a huge fan of the endless guttural growling. Those death grunts and screeches need to be offset for me by something more melodic and cleaner. Otherwise that snarling barrage grates on my soul a bit too much. Thou refuses to bed me with that fact and rightfully so. Cause on their new album Magus, the composition and music are so pitch black, aggressive and gloomy that this would feel completely out of place. This is meant to wear you down, to crush you beneath the waves of concrete riffs and pounding weight. And yet, there is something almost romantic hidden among all this aggression and hate. The way an outsider might carry the weight of the world around on its shoulders. Searching inwards for whatever revelation might save the human spirit. Magus is that guy on the park bench, troubled forlorn look in his eyes due to the wisdom in his heart…

(Written by JK)

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