It’s no secret that I like my metal, so I wanted to post a little something outside of the regular Signalnoise content stream. If you’ve been into metal for any length of time you may have crossed path with the Japanese 3-piece drone, sludge, psychedelic rock outfit Boris. These guys have quite a history and seem to put out 100 records a year.
Now I’m the first to say, Boris is certainly an acquired taste. I was introduced to them by my friend Ryan Grant some time ago, at which point I had the “what the hell is this?” look on my face. Noisy, confusing, fuzzy. Made no sense to me back then. But I never stopped giving them a chance and eventually I came around. Now they’re one of my favorite bands, nothing sounds quite like them, and I dig that.
But let’s get back to design. I have to give Boris some huge respect for their album artwork and band identity. They never seem to sit still on a design or theme, constantly re-inventing their look and logo every time they release something. When you hear rumbles of a new Boris album, you never know what you’re going to get. Crazy generative artwork, a beautiful painting, a sombre photograph, hand-drawn something-or-other. Yet it all works, somehow. Coming up with new and wildly different artwork just CAN’T be an easy task. You gotta respect that.
And look at those Boris logos. All different, all awesome. The albums above are just a handful of their releases.
So here’s to you, Boris. Keep building your walls of sound. Visit their Myspace for some musical samples, and check them out on Twitter.
Hell yeah, their album art is awesome! Some of it carries over to the videos too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WkaeBZ1kGU&feature=related
There’s some pretty funky artwork being created here. Each Album looks individual in it’s own right. I particularly like the first and second ones.
Some really nice stuff! The “Bryter Layter” paraphrase really put a smile on my face. I love those kinds of homages.
Great band with unique sound, their gigs are always very loud, the 6th cover is a direct reference to Nick Drake’s “Bryter Layter”, one of their remote inspirations I guess, stay HEAVY :)
Dude! You beat me to it. I’ve been meaning to post something about their album art/logos on my site for a while. But things move slowly over at HTD.
Have you checked out the new albums? I’ve only had a chance to give them each one spin. Sounds pretty good so far though.
Ryan, ha! That’s awesome. I figured you wouldn’t be too far from the goods too, it’s easy to see Boris as the complete package. Music and art alike. You know the science.
I’ve only given Smile one spin so far and really dig it. I’m yet to hear the newest one, and as a matter of fact, didn’t even know it was released until yesterday. I gotta get Ian Fraser on the horn.
recovering metalhead here. Boris are one of the few bands that still get regular play. great music, appropriately great album artwork.
wouldn’t it be cool to work with them? ;)
A little fun fact about the Boris logos: If their name is in all uppercase then the music is more of their stoner rock/sludge type sound. If their name is all lowercase then it’s more of their ambient drone/experimental type stuff.
…and knowing is half the battle.