SilentScream213 Boris is actually one of the most notable Metal bands to come out of Japan, and one of the biggest names in Drone Metal overall. Their debut is, maybe unsurprisingly for a still rather new and unexplored genre, underwhelming. The single hour-long track is just guitar fuzz and feedback for the majority of it. Nothing resembling riffs or even rhythms – really, it’s just feedback noise (in my opinion, this doesn’t qualify as Metal, but, that’s neither here nor there). There is a midsection where drumming and vocals come in, and that’s really the only Metal part of it, hell it’s the only part that resembles music at all, but it still ain’t good. And it’s over soon enough, back to just noise.

Drone Metal – at least THIS type of Drone Metal, with no mood or rhythm or anything resembling a melody – is like a niche fetish. One that disgusts me, that I cannot and will not ever be into. But for anyone who enjoys it – I’m happy for you, get your rocks off to some wack fuzz.

siLLy puPPy True that Earth was first in creating the whole drone metal thing and others like Melvins and Naked City immediately followed in the wake but it was the Japanese noise worshippers BORIS who really created something special in the doom and gloom department with an amplifier feed back so fat it needs lyposuction and bass sound so deep it disturbs slimy earth worms. ABSOLUTEGO is the then quartet’s debut album which originally came out on the Fangs Anal Satan label but has since been picked up by Southern Lord where it features a bonus track.

This entire album is basically one 60:15 long (65:34 on the ABSOLUTEGO+ edition) ripple through feedback and fuzz with a slow pulsating rhythmic march that sounds like a stoned Godzilla prowling the countryside looking for munchies as the feedback twists and morphs and extends to infinity and back to create quite disturbing sonicscapes that eke out all the dread and awe that this type of music was made for.

As the hypnotic rhythm marches on, the fuzz thickens and the percussion slowly evolves until around the half hour mark a cacophonous drum frenzy simulates the chaos of a falling building after a Japanese earthquake or something and then reverts back into the pacified feedback and fuzz march once again. Throughout the album the sounds are jarring and sound like the listener is under the rotating blades of a lawnmower on the verge of being ripped to shreds but never actually going there and only sustaining the impending doom to come.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart as there is no traditional song structure and is pretty much a parade through sonic torture of sort. As drone metal isn’t my favorite type of metal on the scene there are some true standouts and this introduction to the Japanese noise scene combined with jarring metal sounds is one of the best out there. I recommend the edition with the bonus track “Dronevil 2” which is a mere 7:50 in length but adds a different quieter drone ending to the album that doesn’t rely on fuzzy guitars and more on an undulating bass line that reverbs so low it sounds like the subwoofer is gonna explode.

renkls Absolutego is an absolute love it or hate it album, given it is one 60 minute feedback riddled sludge piece, which is both noisy and hypnotising in the same breath.

It took me many patient listens, and many sets of speakers to find the perfect environment for this album, and when I found it, I was blown away. When I say, it's a 60 minute feedback riddled piece, I do mean it, as it takes 25 minutes to bring itself slowly to life, before segueing into the 'song' part of the mammoth piece, then closing with a 30 minute outro. There's really not much to say about it.

In my opinion, the huge buildup leads to a bit of a letdown with the song portion, but the whole piece only works as exactly that - a whole complete experience. Of course, the final fifteen minutes is the real challenge, with an almost unchanging feedback loop ringing out, on and on and on and on, until the album finally draws to an abrupt close. I do find it a chore to get through that.

The re-release on Southern Lord has improved sound and is also longer, so it appears that it has been slowed down even more. It also includes Dronevil 2, which is pointless when bunched together with the scale of the piece that came before.

Recommended for fans of the sludgeist sludge, some of the noisiest noise, and really adventurous fans of metal.