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Boris (drone/doom era)

Japan

Scores cover the drone/doom era: Amplifier Worship, Flood.

Boris's early drone/doom era built monolithic, amplifier-worshipping slabs of sludge, doom and drone metal, frequently structured as single extended long-form pieces rather than conventional songs. The 1996 debut Absolutego is a 65-minute track of oozing, slow-motion, Melvins-inspired drone rock/metal, while Flood (2000) unfolds as one roughly 70-minute title track broken into four movements. Across Amplifier Worship (1998) and Boris at Last -Feedbacker- (2003) the trio pushed feedback, distortion and glacial tempos to the foreground, a sound whose kinship with Sunn O))) later yielded their joint album Altar.

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SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy0
Balkan0
Hardcore3
Surf0
Barbershop0
Death1
Black1
Technical3
Glitch2
Theatrical3
Folk0
Doom8
Drone7
Shoegaze1
Ambient3
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

MEMBERS

CONNECTIONS

same band
collaboration · 3
label founder
  • Sunn O)))path →

    Southern Lord Records (the US label run by Sunn O)))'s Greg Anderson) reissued/released Boris's early drone work in North America, including the 2003 US reissue of Amplifier Worship, driving a surge of North American popularity. source ↗

label · 34
2 split releases

FURTHER LISTENING

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    Black Mayonnaise
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