Boris

Anyone trying to guess Boris’s influences would have a hard time doing so just from listening to one song off of one album. And it’s not just because of the sheer diversity of the band’s songwriting, but rather the ways in which the trio puts together sounds in what seems to be a spirit of true experimentation. Whether forging crushing, doomy guitar chords with an expansively blissful sound — like Jesu doing an early Verve cover, as on 2005’s Pink — or eerie space-doom-crust as heard on Vein, or whatever flavor Boris favors at the moment, the music is never boring, even when the band puts out eyebrow-raising material like the EP it did with Ian Astbury of the Cult. Similar to classic iconoclastic Japanese psych bands such as Les Rallizes Denudés, Boris follows a unique and unwavering vision of sonic catharsis.