Despite the recent, brilliant resuscitation of Rocky & The Sweden and the hardcore fandom of Boris bassist/guitarist Takeshi, this isn’t a pairing I ever would have predicted – not that I’m complaining, mind, because the results are absolutely raging. R&TS cough up four motörcharged tracks that follow the blazing course set by 2019’s ‘City Baby Attacked By Buds’ LP, their rabid, off-the-hook hardcore seemingly injected with more rock ‘n’ roll pyrotechnics than ever before. Case in point is ‘Up In Smoke’, which even folds in a cheeky classic rock riff before speeding into a madcap bout of twin guitar heroics.
While Boris aren’t quite as frantic they certainly don’t slouch through their side of the record, offering three weird, wild cuts that fit snugly alongside the material on their most recent ‘Heavy Rocks’ excursion (one track, ‘Nosferatou’ actually features there in a slightly different guise). Proto-metal riffs thunk and crunch while just about everything else wails, from the incendiary solos to the desperate caterwaul of the vocals. ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Killing The Observer’ hurtle hungrily towards oblivion while the aforementioned ‘Nosferatou’ adopts a sludgier, more meditative approach that incorporates wordless chants and chirruping sax – a sort of ugly collision between Oxbow’s Peter Brötzmann collab and the dying moments of a smoke-choked Sleep jam session.