Public service announcement: I have recently removed the PX-102 copy of Akuma no Uta from my library to add the PXLP-102 copy. This PXLP-102 copy is the one known by the more popular album cover—that is, Atsuo sitting on a stool holding his guitar across his lap. Of course, we all know that this album cover is a clear remake of Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter album cover. The purple photo tint and coloring spruces up my colorful Boris album collection, so it’s necessary that I have it.

So, anyway. Akuma no Uta is Boris’s most “stoner metal” album. The drone-ish psychedelic guitar riffs and smokey low-fidelity production make that perfectly clear. I have something of a beef with the lo-fi production though, because Heavy Rocks sounded great and I find it annoying that they deliberately chose a lo-fi approach in order to appear more “underground” and “artsy,” but it’s not really a big deal. Musically the album is composed of fast and short songs such as “Ibitsu” and “Furi” (or “フリー”) that sound like they could have come off Heavy Rocks, if Heavy Rocks had less energy and weaker hooks. The rest of the album are the more drone-y slow stoner metal jams that sound like they could have been on Amplifier Worship (though Akuma no Uta‘s songs, while setting up the same feeling, are more riff-based and “chug” a bit more than Amplifier Worship‘s, as you might expect from a stoner metal album).

Akuma no Uta never succeeds at fully pumping you up or putting you in a trance because it shifts constantly at what it’s trying to do, which is more often than not weaker impressions of Boris’s trademark sounds that have been done better on other albums. Akuma no Uta doesn’t have enough of its own personality. However, it’s nice to have an album that has both of Boris’s drone and hard rock qualities and only lasts 39 minutes, and the lo-fi production gives the raucous “Ibitsu” and “Ano Onna No Onryou” (or “あの女の音量”) a garage rock quality that’s pretty fun. I still recommend Akuma no Uta, all of the songs are good even though they only approach greatness sometimes.