Boris - Journey -Live at Port City Music Hall 20190912- (2026)
I think Journey works best when Boris remembers that volume and atmosphere still need a song underneath them.
The intro creates the right tension, but it also immediately tells me that this album will take its time. That makes sense for a live document, although I am not sure every minute needed to be preserved.
Power is where the concert really starts for me. It is heavy, physical and surprisingly mobile. The rhythm gives the distortion somewhere to go, and the track feels like a performance rather than a long soundcheck for the next explosion.
LOVE is less convincing. Wata’s guitar is beautiful, especially when it finally rises above the slower foundation, but I remember the tone more than the composition. The climax works while it is happening. I am less certain that the song gives me a strong reason to return.
To the Beach is an important change of colour. The shoegaze melody makes the set feel lighter without making it soft, and the track has more personality than another eight minutes of slow-building drone would have provided.
The title track is pleasant and immersive, but also one of the clearest examples of the album’s problem. It creates movement, atmosphere and scale without arriving anywhere that feels completely necessary. I enjoy the journey, but the destination is not especially memorable.
Melody is much better. The title is accurate: there is a real song inside the saturation. Boris can still sound huge, but the size is supporting something I can identify and remember. This is one of the tracks I would actually replay outside the full album.
Heavenly Blue is another useful interruption. It is short, direct and almost noise-pop compared with the pieces surrounding it. It does not have the emotional weight of the best material, but its brevity makes the whole concert stronger.
Absolutego gives the set another burst of energy. I like the performance, although four minutes of Absolutego inevitably feels more like a concentrated reference to Boris’ history than a truly definitive version.
Then Feedbacker arrives, and this is where the album finally earns its scale.
The nineteen minutes do not feel decorative. The quiet sections build real tension, the guitar enters with purpose and the final weight feels emotional rather than merely loud. Several tracks here use repetition, but Feedbacker turns repetition into transformation.
It is easily the main reason to hear the album.
Unfortunately, Shadow of Skull has to follow it. The atmosphere is suitably dark and the performance is powerful, but another twelve minutes of slow movement feels excessive after such a complete climax. The track stays in one impressive space without finding enough new detail inside it.
Tears is a good bonus track and brings more vulnerability into the recording. But I still think Shadow of Skull was the natural ending. Adding a song from another concert makes the release feel more complete as an archive and slightly less effective as an album.
That distinction matters here.
I believe this was probably an excellent concert. The set moves through heavy psych, shoegaze, drone and doom without making those styles feel completely separate. Boris sound confident, Wata’s guitar regularly becomes extraordinary and Feedbacker is genuinely excellent.
But listening at home is not the same thing as standing inside that volume.
Without the physical impact, some of these long builds become easier to analyse than to feel. I start noticing how often the group uses the same basic movement from space to saturation, and how few tracks I would choose to play individually.
There are enough strong moments to make this much more than a disposable archive. Power, Melody and Feedbacker are real keepers, while the two covers prevent the set from becoming completely monochromatic.
But 84 minutes is a large commitment for an album whose best ideas could have produced a much tighter and more powerful experience.
This captures Boris very well. It does not capture them concisely.
Pros
- Power, Melody and especially Feedbacker are major highlights.
- The set moves naturally between drone metal, shoegaze, heavy psych and noise-pop.
- Wata’s guitar playing gives the performance most of its colour and emotional force.
Cons
- Several slow constructions repeat the same movement without delivering an equally strong payoff.
- The 84-minute duration significantly limits replay value.
- Tears is worthwhile on its own but weakens the natural ending provided by Shadow of Skull.
Genre: Drone Metal
Country: Japan
Final Verdict: 67% (Good Album)
Yearly Ranking: 124th / 677
Highlight: Heavenly blue
Made me think of:
Sunn O)))
Swans
Jesu
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