Boris - Akuma no Uta
When I talk about
Akuma no uta , I always relate it to the sampler platter at Friendly"s, or any other restaurant. It gives you a taste of everything. From the Sabbath styled doom, to there Earth crushing drone. You even get a portion of MC5 styled noise attacks. And just like the salty deep fried goodness of the sampler platter, you're bound to like at least one of them. Maybe even all of them.
After the almost ten minute guitar drone of
Intoro subdues you to your chair, the squealing feedback of
Ibitsu rips you right out. This track is balls out aggression the whole way through. It starts out fast as hell, and only picks up speed as it goes along, every instrument rips on this track and agro-garage rock production puts every sound in your face. It's a tornado of sound that will rip through whatever room your listening to this in. When it's finally over, you're given a half second breather until
Furi comes in and starts the onslaught over. This is another great rocker. But after repeated listens I tend not to notice it. On its own it's another great song, but here, it's sandwiched between the two best cuts on the album.
After Furi implodes on itself your greeted by
Naki Kyoku , and it is startlingly different, it starts off slow and very relaxed. Slowly building, more instruments are layered on, drums come and more guitar, and eventually it shifts gears into a more rocking number. Boris guitarist Wata is one of my personal favorite players. Whenever anyone says, girl can't play guitar, point them right to this song. She is on fire the whole time. This song at times bears a striking resemblance to Funkadelic's
Maggot Brain . Again the whole band rocks on this one, but Wata steals the show. This is by far the best song on the album.
Ano Onna no Onryou returns to the rock sound that the first couple songs had, it's slower and more plodding though. The riffs in this song are really cool. And the solo is fantastic. It's another great track, but it drags on a in the middle. The albums closer
Akuma no uta starts with a gong and a heavy as hell riff, and goes on from there. The riff builds and builds until it explodes into full on rock mode. This is a great instrumental and a great closing track, it leaves you wanting more.
If someone were to introduce a friend to Boris, this is a great place to start; it hits you hard the whole way through and makes you want more. This deserves a solid 4.5 out of 5.
