�� 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.

�� The second entry in the Japanese Heavy Rocks 7" series finds the band making their way back to the sort of crushing heaviosity of their much-revered early albums, albeit warped through their newer propensity for incendiary overdriven distortion. The A-side opens up with a blat of weird electronic/synth fuckery, wailing vocals rising through cloudbanks of lush reverb and some random guitar splatter, as "Heavy Metal Addict" proceeds to kick in with an oddball bit of metal goofery, a chugging, ass-kicking riff locking into overdrive over a pounding motorik drumbeat. Certainly heavy enough, but when those weird howling metal-god vocals start echoing across the sky and the chanting/clapping accompaniment comes in, this turns into something much more lighthearted, a whacked out metallic pop hook forming out of the metallic hypno-jam, as it all shifts into more weird electronic effects and noises, exuberant whoops and yells and discordant crooning.

�� As with the other 7"s, Boris shifts gears into a much more experimental and off-kilter sound on the b-side. This might be my favorite of all of the b-sides in this 7" series; "Black Original" sees Boris whipping out some stomping 808 beats and fuzz-drenched guitar for a totally retro dance pop atmosphere, a weird take on mid-80's synth-rock as filtered through the warped prism of Boris's songwriting, the background swirling with warbling synth noises and watery, murky melody, that deformed funk guitar front and center, a mutant new wave pop hit that almost feels like some souped-up, deformed version of a Wire song, twisted by Boris's willful weirdness.

�� Like the other records, this too has one of the members of the band pictured on the cover, a strange sort of glamour shot that seems to go along with the way that Boris began reinventing themselves as psychedelic hard rock pop stars, his visage obscured by the layered vector chaos graphics that were designed by Sunn / Khanate guitarist Stephen O'Malley.