Review: Boris with Merzbow Rock Dream

The first thing you must understand about a band like Boris is that they do not believe in stagnation. Since 1994 they have refused to stay put, testing the boundaries of Heavy Metal and pushing the genre beyond its expected limits. They are simultaneously the loudest and most subtle band of the genre. To call them experimental would only be selling them short. Boris simply refuse to be limited by genre definitions. One moment they sound like the darkest Drone outfit since Sunn O))), the next they’re tearing through riffs like a heavier Bleach era Nirvana.

In the past three years Boris have released four studio albums, three of which were collaborative efforts with other artists like Sunn O))) and Michio Kurihara. I managed to see Boris with Kurihara in October of last year and it was easily the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It also was a strong contender for the best show I saw all year.

In 2005 Boris released Sun Baked Snow Cave, a collaborative effort with experimental noise artist, Merzbow. This album was an absolute struggle to get through as it’s only track, clocking in at just over 62 minutes, seems more like an exercise in aural torture than anything else.

Fortunately Rock Dream is about as far removed from Sun Baked Snow Cave as you can get. Recorded live in Tokyo, Rock Dream is in many ways more reminiscent of the show I saw than any of the previous Boris/Merzbow collaborations of which, I understand, there are three. Granted the first track of this two-disc set is the 35 minute “Feedbacker,” which then leads directly into “Black Out” and then deteriorates into a cacophony of Merzbow’s noise (a track called "Evil Stack") before finally giving way to the much quieter “Rainbow” from last year’s Kurihara collaboration of the same name. Before you know it disc one is over, and that’s saying a lot for any album with a half-hour long opening track.

The second disc kicks you in the face with bone-shattering force as the band powers through the 1-2-3 punch of “Pink,” “Woman on the Screen,” and “Nothing Special” in their exact order from 2006’s Pink. After a few more Merzbow-driven tracks, including the beautifully epic “Flower Sun Rain,” the album closes with flawless back-to-back performances of “Just Abandoned My-self” and “Farewell.”

With the recent news that Boris will be releasing their first non-collaborative album since Pink later this year, Rock Dream is certainly something to wet the appetite. It’s also a perfect example of everything Boris are capable of, presenting the band in a peak performance. It also must be played at top volume. You don’t get the full Boris experience unless your hearing is irreversibly damaged.