Boris
Pink (Deluxe Reissue)
(Sargent House)

It’s been 10 years since the U.S. release of Boris’ Pink and to celebrate, it’s been reissued with an extra disc of previously unreleased material. What better time to start getting into the band? Plus, if you’ve never heard Boris before, Pink is a pretty good place to start. Boris made a name for themselves as a doom/drone band, often releasing albums consisting of one long song. Over time, they began incorporating other influences into their sound and Pink was one of their best-received albums due to its diversity. Most of the album is big-riff rock ‘n’ roll in the vein of Melvins and Kyuss, but Boris took the opportunity to show off some other tricks. The opening track, “Farewell,” is a grand shoegaze piece that would make My Bloody Valentine proud while “Nothing Special” is fuzzed-out hardcore. Then they remind you of where they came from with the doomy “Blackout.” Closing track, “Just Abandoned Myself,” jams all those influences together into one incredible, epic song. Pink is simply a must for heavy rock fans.

The bonus disc, called Forbidden Songs, though maybe not as consistent as Pink, still works as an album on its own. A song like “Non/sha/lant” lives up to its name, sounding like an off-the-cuff jam, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to listen to. “Your Name Part 2” and “Room Noise” are arguably a little too experimental to go on the album proper, but again, I’m glad we’re getting the chance to hear them. “Talisman” and “Are You Ready?” are both good enough to have made the record, but I guess there just wasn’t enough room. This is why this deluxe version is worth it. Now we can get the whole picture of a band at the time they made one of their classic albums.