Real men wear pink, and real bands change their sound. Japanese intelligent-sludge rockers Boris take a completely different spin on their craft with their latest release, Pink. The key word here is intelligent, not sludge or rock. Boris, without a doubt, is the thinking man’s metal band, and their musical change in Pink is no random occurrence. While on previous efforts such as Amplifier Worship and Feedbacker, Boris twinkled more with volume knob tweaks than catchy melodies, here they delve into sonic textures mastered by bands such as My Bloody Valentine and late Unwound.
But Boris is a lot smarter than that. Pink isn’t a mere copy or derivate of the previous masterpieces like Loveless or Leaves Turn Inside You. Boris knows how to write kick-ass riffs, riffs that rock heavily like the old Kyuss records or some moments of Queens of the Stone Age. One would think incorporating riff-rock into sheogaze and atmospheric rock to be dangerous and potentially cheesy territory, and in theory it certainly is, but Boris pull it off perfectly. Imagine Loveless mixed with your standard kick-ass, catchy-as-hell riff rock. I know, you can’t. That’s why Boris made Pink.
