Album Details

• Artist: Boris
• Album: Heavy Rocks
• Label: Sargent House
• Year of Release:
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: trismus on 2011-05-17

In so many ways, Boris is the type of band to which all others strive.  It's a precious few who have the confidence, ability, and balls to spill themselves in every desired direction.  Many bands want you to believe that they’ve achieved the same level of expressive nirvana as Boris but so few actually exist within that wonderful ignorance of selfish indulgence.  It not only takes talent but also a will to create what is genuine in the moment, regardless of fan base or label.  So it has come to be expected that every Boris release will be unique, experimental, and the impossible coalescence of three musicians’ visions.  Attention Please and its companion album Heavy Rocks are, of course, no exception and once again serve as the final product of a romp through Boris’s expansive, evolving playground. 

“Riot Sugar” starts Heavy Rocks with a stomping juggernaut, identifying itself right from the onset that it’s very different from its sister Attention Please.  It’s not long after though that we see the similarity in the eyes and bone structure. The same pop loving parents’ features are inescapable.  Where Attention Please turned bubblegum into cannibal flesh, Heavy Rocks utilizes Boris’s talents of experimentation to revisit some of the ideas from the previous album of the same name and refine what were coarse concepts.  A veteran focus forges the tools now and song writing experience alone establishes the habit of trimming the fat before food meets fire.  The resulting feast is easier to digest with a professional chef’s presentation. 

Does this mean Heavy Rocks is Boris’s contribution to modern pop rock?  Not necessarily, it’s not as if the band hasn’t played in pop music’s playground before.  Part of Boris’s overall appeal is their ability and uninhibited nature of exploring all genres of music.  Pop isn’t a label that Boris would run from, assuming its followed by many, many others.  Being coupled with Attention Please, however, gives Heavy Rocks an identity ever entwined with its sister record and because of what that album expresses, you get the impression that Heavy Rocks is trying with every thrash riff and droney ballad to deny the shared bloodline.  It’s a fascinating relationship and makes the compilation the resultant of compliment through contrast.  

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