To fans of experimental metal, the notion that Boris creates the mightiest rumble to come out of Japan since Godzilla fought Rodan is a redundancy. This latest release, their first for Chicago’s Drag City, finds Boris in collaboration with Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara for a full-on eruption of brutal psychedelia that boils down to the band’s most essential effort since “Akuma No Uta.”
A far cry from their previous collaborative endeavor with Sunn O))), which bogged down the listener with overwrought half-hour excursions of pure sludgy monotony, “Rainbow” follows along the path of compatibility the group ventured down on 2006’s shoegaze-esque “Pink,” actually warranting repeated listens, perhaps more than any previous Boris release out there.
Anybody with an appreciation for the electric guitar will revel in the pure six-string magic of numbers like “You Laughed Like a Water Mark” and “No Sleep Till I Become Hollow,” which borders on pretty in its minimalist harmonics. And for the longtime fan of avant-doom with a Far East boom, the very concept of this collaborative effort between Boris and Kurihara is akin to such recent stateside dream teams as Mike Watt playing bass for the Stooges or Johnny Marr sitting in with Modest Mouse. Only much, much better. — Ron Hart
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