''Smile'' is the fourteenth full-length album by Japanese band Boris. It was released through

Diwphalanx Records Diwphalanx Records is a Japanese rock music record label, which primarily releases Japanese bands. Artist list *Antiseen * Balzac *Banana Shakes *Bitter Sweet Generation *Blue Beat Players * Boris *Church of Misery *Central *Cool Wise Men *Dead ...

in early 2008 (late 2008 for the live version accordingly), featuring guest musicians Michio Kurihara of

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

and

Stephen O'Malley Stephen O'Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA; born July 15, 1974) is an American guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington, who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone doom, death/doom, and exper ...

Sunn O))) Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American experimental metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington. The band is known for their distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, drone, bla ...

, both of whom have collaborated with Boris in the past. Shortly after this initial release, the album was released by American label

Southern Lord Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to include arti ...

with a slightly different track listing, different artwork (by

), and an almost entirely different sound. The first 3000 copies of this edition include a DVD containing videos for "Statement", "Pink" and "My Neighbor Satan". Notably, this release is the second Boris album to feature vocals on every track (the first, excluding any one-track albums, was ''

Amplifier Worship ''Amplifier Worship'' is the second album by Japanese band Boris. Excluding the "one-long-song" albums, this is one of only two Boris full-lengths to have vocals on every song (the other being 2008's ''Smile''), and the first time that Takesh ...

''). Also, it delves more into experimental tendencies with a more manipulated sound, use of drum machines, and even experiments with sampled tracks (notably, "Dead Destination" is essentially "No Ones Grieve part 2" from ''

The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked 2 ''The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked 2'' is the eleventh album by Japanese experimental band Boris. This is the second installment of the ''Thing Which Solomon Overlooked'' series and was released concurrently with the following installment, '' ...

'' with additional vocals; part of the seventh song from ''

Vein Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

'' is used in the untitled final track). The album can also be seen as humorous since Boris have referenced this album in an interview with Terrorizer Magazine as "un-cool" and "The sell-out album" with comical lyricism (A prime example being the song "Buzz-In" which is about the Melvins live video

Salad of a Thousand Delights ''Salad of a Thousand Delights'' is a live performance video produced by Box Dog Video featuring the Melvins. It was recorded in a four-camera shoot at the North Shore Surf Club, Olympia, Washington, May 16, 1991, and released on VHS in 1992. Th ...

), an 80s look for the band themselves, and the tones of voice in some of the songs. The album charted on the Billboard

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart at number 20.

Track listing

The different versions of ''Smile'' contain different mixes: the English version was mixed by Souichiro Nakamura, while the Japanese version was handled by You Ishihara.

Diwphalanx CD

Disk Union vinyl

Limited to 500 copies.

Southern Lord CD

Southern Lord vinyl

Several limited-run colors of the Southern Lord vinyl have been released: clear orange (7000 copies), opaque orange (1000 copies), grey (1000 copies), yellow (1000 copies), and black (3000 copies). All versions contain the same music. The mixes here are similar to the Southern Lord CD release but the duration of some tracks have been changed, in part due to the addition of two bonus tracks.

Southern Lord bonus DVD

The bonus DVD came with certain limited editions of the Southern Lord CD, limited to 3000 copies. It features three official music videos.

"Choice Cuts" Amazon exclusive drop-card

All copies of ''Smile'' sold through

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

received this additional free download-only collection.

Personnel

* Takeshi -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Wata - guitar, vocals * Atsuo -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, vocals *

Michio Kurihara (born 23 November 1961) is a Japanese guitarist who has played with Ai Aso, Cosmic Invention, Hazama, Ensemble Pearl, Overhang Party, Onna, Ghost (1984 band), Ghost, Damon & Naomi, Boris (band), Boris, Yura Yura Teikoku, YBO2, and The Stars (J ...

- guitar on "My Neighbour Satan", "Flower, Sun, Rain", and "You Were Holding An Umbrella" *

- guitar on "Untitled"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smile (Boris Album) 2008 albums Boris (band) albums Southern Lord Records albums