Recorded in 1996, this album was Boris’ full-length debut, and it showed right away that this band wasn’t messing around. In its original version, it consisted of one 65-minute track of oozing, slow motion, Melvins-inspired drone rock. (The U.S. release, put out in 2001 by Southern Lord, adds an additional bonus track, the 7:50 “Dronevil.” And talk about buildups, this thing starts with a full 25 minutes of heavily down-tuned bass rumblings and doom-instilling guitar feedback before the drums and vocals finally kick in with the big payoff. From there, the band moves through about 15 minutes of thick, fuzzed-out trance rock (again, mostly instrumental) before the drums exit again, leaving in their wake a howling, droning mass of layered guitar feedback. The sound of this is truly massive and unsettling. It takes a good 25 more minutes for the wreckage to clear and the track to finally wind down to a close — it seems strange to say it, but anything less would have seemed like an abrupt halt, such is the magnitude of this track. The aptly titled “Dronevil”‘s oscillating, distorted sub-bass drones are also menacing and impressive, although arguably a bit anticlimactic in this context. In any case, suffice it to say that this album is not for novices, but for anyone whose record collection includes Sleep’s Jerusalem, Earth 2, Naked City’s Leng Tch’e, and/or more than a couple of the Melvins’ earlier LPs, this Mt. Everest of droning doom is probably a necessary addition. – William York