��Back in stock. Just unearthed some of the very last copies of this series of 7" EPs from Japanese sludge rockers Boris, originally released back in 2009 in between the Smile and New Album albums. The first two 7"s have been out of print for a while, so when these few copies go, that'll be the last of 'em. Each one of these 7"s featured a different member of Boris on the front cover posing in a weird glamour-style shot, and each record delivers a slightly different permutation of Boris's experimental metal/pop/sludge sound, with a presentation that ties these three records together in a manner that really reminds me of those old Melvins "solo" EPs that came out on Boner way back when.
�� Japanese Heavy Rocks #1 kicks off with some of the band's brutal blown-out psych storm, the first song "8" slowly building out of crashing waves of glacial guitar chords, slowly drifting through a murky, low-fi mix that has this crawling, melodic doom riff suddenly surging into sharp focus as the band kicks in to a killer, heavy pop hook. When they crank the distortion pedals on this song, it turns into something as heavy as any of the later Torche albums, a roar of sunny anthemic guitar hooks suddenly erupting into that crushing dreamy metal-pop, the chorus one of the best I've ever heard from the band. It's like one of your favorite British shoegazer bands suddenly discovering the skull-crushing power of down-tuned, in-the-red metal guitars. Fucking killer.
��As with the other entries in this 7" series, the b-side on this on features some supremely danceable fuzz-streaked pop, this one called "Hey Everyone"; it probably has more to do with my age than anything, bur some reason this song seriously reminds me of that stuff that was coming out of Manchester in the early 90s, the song carried on an almost danceable undercurrent, but fuelled with some seriously crunchy metallic elements and more of that searing, overdriven amplifier fire, the band bathing the tune in their super-distorted psychedelic guitars.
�� As with the other 7"s in this series, this comes in a thick cardstock sleeve with striking design from Stephen O'Malley. Super limited.