Bongripper / Conan - Split 12"

The recent (edit: a year and a half ago! Fuuuuuck) Bongripper and Conan UK tour lived up to all my expectations in total sonic annihilation, and this tie-in Split 12" is a great little reminder of the cacophony the duo made together. On the 12" we get more of the same from Bongripper, which isn't a bad thing I assure you. I simply cannot think of anything more to say other than it really is awesome as hell, if only a little short for my liking, even when spinning at 33rpm. Bongripper are slowly growing to become one of my favourite doom metal bands of all time, and they are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Conan on the other hand throw a little variation into their usual sound here. It is still downtuned and massive; horrendous room shaking bass tones are laced with echoic yelps like every other Conan release, but there seems to be a grandiose, building feeling beneath the usual textures, as if Conan have all of a sudden become epic as fuck. It is like giant-monolithic-power-doom-drone-metal. Yes, that'll do. Ha ha. Out on Holy Roar Records.

Bongripper / Hate - Split 12"

Hate sound absolutely nothing like what I expected. Being totally unfamiliar with them, I should really have looked them up before buying this record, but Bongripper's name alone carried enough weight to seal the deal for me. This split spins at 45rpm, so it is unfortunately very short, but hey - give me quality over quantity any day of the week.

So like I said, Hate sound nothing like I anticipated. Splitting with Bongripper made me assume that they would be slow and heavy by default, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Hate do have a few slower songs, but mainly play lightening fast sludgy hardcore. Imagine Eyehategod meets Converge at a grindcore all dayer and you should get the picture.

Bongripper contribute one long track; the elegantly-named "Fisting". Whilst not as brutal or punishing as the title suggests, it is still groovy, downtuned and heavier than the weight of the entire ocean. Maybe it isn't the best place to start with Bongripper, but longtime fans should be more than happy with the material on display here. A perfect soundtrack for the ripping of bongs, as the name suggests.

There are 400 copies on black and a limited run of 100 on a smokey wax. This record is still available at the time of writing. You can get it directly from the band's mail order at Great Barrier Records, or fairly cheaply on Discogs.

Bongripper - Satan Worshipping Doom

What I've got here in today's post is Bongripper's 3rd pressing of Satan Worshipping Doom, which I wisely picked up at Roadburn in April. The band release all their records themselves, and it is now worth a small fortune on Discogs. Also, this is going to sound rather bizarre, but I see this as less of a record and more as a reminder, or a testament, to the band's fucking mindblowing set at Roadburn festival 2012. I gotta say, I was a bad place during last year's Roadburn, I almost felt detatched from the world for various different reasons, but several forms of drugs and mind / mood altering music helped me through the cold nights! Ha ha

 

Bongripper played two sets that festival, and one of them was this four track monster in it's entirety. It was a very draining experience, and I actually do not know how I managed to stand through the whole thing without collapsing and foaming at the mouth in a doom-metal induced spasm of orgasm, but that's what weed is for, right? Since that day I have never been able to listen to this album again without longing for the sheer impact that it pushed upon me live; it will forever serve as a second hand memory. It is still as awesome as several hundred shades of fuck, but it will never, ever, EVER reach the feeling that it had live.

 

You can take that in two ways. Some might say that this record is now tainted. I beg to differ. How good must Bongripper be to transcend that level of awesomeness when you play your entire record from start to finish live it actually turns out BETTER than the version you spent long days in the studio perfecting? That sirs, is art. And whilst I agree with people like M. Gira (to name a few, I just picked him because I am a gigantic fanboy) on the matter that songs should naturally take different forms in live environments, I can't help but almost shed a tear thinking about standing in the 013 main room at Roadburn every time I look at the cover art to this record. Now, if that makes it tainted, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

 

After 2 minutes; that riff! Jesus! If that doesn't blow your head off, get off this website! ;)