Boris: No

Watching Velvet Buzzsaw last night was more harmful than helpful. Not because of the contemporary depictions of shallow youth, alienation, and empty hedonism worthy of Bret Easton Ellis’ approval, more because the arrogant rotogravure of Morf’s critic style rubbed off.

At this point, abandon hope. No by Boris is a waste of time. It was a complete wailing of noise, like the neighbor who has ten babies that are out of control. Understandably, the punk-metal fusion by the Japanese group is the latest puzzle piece in the game of their legacy. However, because a band had great contributions to the world of metal does not mean everything will be good. It is a miss.

The whole album is cursed with sloppily raw production value. It almost seems as if Boris thought “Let’s get dark and discordant by making it sound like we’re in an abandoned warehouse recording on Audacity.” It sounded like Old Man Bloom got heated off black market PCP and thrashed around yelling in a storage facility they didn’t even pay for.

There is no songwriting of mention either. It is an entire album of plug-and-play nightmares. The best song on the album was “Interlude”. An interlude should never be the best song.

Shining moments included “Genesis”, “Anti-Gone”, and “Fundamental Error”, but they were only redeemed by nihilistic riffs and powerful rhythm.

Sound is captivating when it is determined and full of attitude. No is a temper tantrum.

Even some of the song titles are pretentious and garbled. What is “HxCxHxC-Perforation Line”? Elon Musk’s nephew? Mars Volta wouldn’t even want that name anywhere near their inner sanctum.

The middle of the album is marred by thoughtless quantum of audio violence. It is assumed you are not meant to sing along, but you are meant to rage to it. If anyone says it’s meant to be a vibe, it’s a bad one. At least have a memorable moment to headbang or move to.

It makes complete sense why this is a Bandcamp exclusive. It will fall into the bottomless pit of mediocre content next to the likes of a high school emo band. There is a song on the album called “Loveless” and that perfectly describes the atmosphere of Boris’ new slab of rot.

The final thoughts on this godless sludge of music? One word. No.

Rating: 1.8/10

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