This Friday, August 18th, Japanese experimental legends Boris will celebrate Heavy Rocks turning legal drinking age with a reissue of the 2002 album courtesy of Third Man Records. Heavy Rocks (2002) [which served as the inspiration for the band’s Heavy Rocks (2011) and Heavy Rocks (2022) LPs], never-before-released on vinyl or digital formats, will be available digitally this Friday, with vinyl and a CD re-press coming on September 8th. The album’s original release was limited to their home of Japan, after a fire broke out at the record plant, leaving the stamper lost and the album long out-of-print, only helping to cement the release as a cult classic.
To help celebrate the reissue, Boris will be embarking on a massive double-headlining jaunt with sludge metal icons Melvins, which kicks off August 24th in Los Angeles, and will bring the two acts to our very own Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia on Thursday, September 21st. The tour, dubbed the “Twins of Evil Tour,” will have each band playing a classic album in its entirety, with Boris doing Heavy Rocks (2002) and Melvins doing 1991’s Bullhead, whose “Boris” is the Japanese rockers’ namesake. Upon announcing the tour, Boris vocalist, bassist, and rhythm guitarist Takeshi expressed his profound excitement for the two bands – who have now been friends for over two decades — to embark on this tremendous endeavor.
“Could anyone have predicted such an astonishing event, that Boris and Melvins would tour the entire USA together? Since the mid-1980’s, Melvins have had an enormous influence on artists of all genres not only limited to heavy music, and have brought forth a surge of faithful followers over the years. Needless to say, Boris is just one of these many bands influenced by the mighty Melvins…”
Check out Boris performing Heavy Rocks (2002) track “Heavy Friends” for an EarthQuaker Session above, get your tickets for the concert at the link below the Twins of Evil Tour poster, and read my summer 2022 chat with Takeshi here.
*Get your tickets here.
