Bongzilla
| Bongzilla | |
|---|---|
 Bongzilla at the 2017 Roadburn Festival |
|
| General information | |
| origin |
Madison , Wisconsin , United States
|
| Genre (s) | Sludge , stoner doom |
| founding | 1995, 2015 |
| resolution | 2007 |
| Founding members | |
| Michael "Muleboy" John Makela | |
Electric guitar |
Jeff "Spanky" Schultz |
| Michael "Magma" Henry | |
| Current occupation | |
Electric guitar, vocals |
Michael "Muleboy" John Makela |
Electric guitar |
Jeff "Spanky" Schultz |
Drums |
Michael "Magma" Henry |
| Cooter Brown | |
| former members | |
bass |
Nate "Weed Dragon" Dethlefsen |
bass |
Dave "Dixie" Collins |
Bongzilla is a sludge band from Madison , Wisconsin . It was founded in 1996 by Michael "Muleboy" John Makela, Jeff "Spanky" Schultz and Michael "Magma" Henry and existed until 2007 with changing bassists. After a break of several years, the group reformed in 2015.
history
The band was formed as a result of the members "over a group of bongs ". The band name and the idea of founding a band are based on the situation of smoking together.
After the founding, Bongzilla played an untitled demo recording produced by Steve Austin of Today Is the Day . With a few EPs , mostly split releases, for small indie labels , the band landed a contract with Relapse Records .
Relapse released three studio albums , an EP and a live album . In the meantime, the band continued to participate in split releases from small labels and the samplers Harvestfest and Weedstock Vol.1 . Michael "Magma" Henry and Michael "Muleboy" John Makela founded the musically similar band Aquilonian in 2007 , which, however, opened up conceptually and was no longer limited to the topic of cannabis. With the establishment of Aquilonians, Bongzilla were dissolved. In 2008, Nuggets was released on Barbarian Records, the last compilation of the band that had already dissolved.
After a few years of inactivity, Bongzilla reappeared for the first time in 2015. Makela stated that several factors led to the reunion. He mentioned the inquiries from the operator of the Temple Festival Francis Mace and the fact that the former bassist Cooter Brown moved into his immediate vicinity. In the reformed line-up, the group made a small tour of Europe and a small tour of the United States in 2015. In 2017, Bongzilla performed at the Roadburn Festival and played the full album Gateway .
concept
The band followed a continuous concept. All songs deal with the consumption, effects and use of cannabis as an intoxicant . The band performed exclusively under the influence of the drug and, according to their own statements, recorded every release under the influence of THC . The band places particular emphasis on the possible legalization of drugs, which Makela describes not only as a continuous band concept, but also as a personal concern.
“The still existing ban on hashish has always been one of the central issues in my life. As long as the consumption of THC is not legalized, I'm pissed off and try to change that. With BONGZILLA we try to pass our annoyance on to as many people as possible in order to fight with them for the joint release . No government on earth should have the right to withhold hashish from the citizens of their country. The central message of all of our albums is something like 'Smoke To Vote! Vote To Smoke! '"
style
Michael "Muleboy" John Makela calls the band's style, described as individually, "Devil-Weed-Doom". Reviewers see the band's style as a mix of stoner doom and sludge with influences from southern rock and groovy blues . The “tough riffs” are described as “bluesy-distorted” and dusty “easy and relaxed”. The sludge elements are particularly attributed to "the hoarse keifgesang". The band members name representatives of heavy metal , hard and southern rock as an influence, as do some sludge, drone and stoner-doom bands.
Martin Popoff assigned stash to stoner rock in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties Stash . The texts that would act conceptually from marijuana use would, with Noisecore presented -like singing. According to Simone Pfundstein from Metal Hammer , the band played on Gateway Stoner Rock, with slow, doomy riffs. Makela's hoarse vocals are rarely used. Pfundstein found the texts post-pubescent.
Discography
- 1996: Bongzilla (demo, self-distribution)
- 1996: Mixed Bag (EP, Rhetoric Records)
- 1997: Bongzilla / Meatjack (split EP with Meatjack , Pinecone Records)
- 1998: Bongzilla / Cavity (Split EP with Cavity , Rhetoric Records)
- 1998: Bongzilla / Hellchild (split EP with Hellchild , HG Fact Records)
- 1998: Hemp for Victory (EP, Thunder Lizard Records)
- 1998: Methods for Attaining Extreme Altitudes (EP, Relapse Records. Re-Release 2007, Modus Operandi)
- 1999: He's No Good to Me Dead - 74 Minutes of Extreme Pain (Split album with Grief , Sourvein , Negative and Subsanity , Game Two Records)
- 1999: Stash (Album, Relapse Records. Re-Release 2007, Modus Operandi)
- 2000: Apogee (album, Relapse Records)
- 2001: Twin Threat to Your Sanity (Split EP with Noothgrush , Corrupted and Dystopia , Bad People Records)
- 2001: Shake: The Singles (compilation, Barbarian Records)
- 2002: Gateway (album, Howling Bull America)
- 2004: Live from the Relapse Contamination Festival (Live album, Relapse Records)
- 2005: Amerijuanican (album, Relapse Records)
- 2008: Nuggets (compilation, Barbarian Records)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Scott Heller: Bongzilla. Aural Innovations, accessed June 3, 2014 .
- ^ A b Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal. 2003 ISBN 978-1-90144-714-9
- ↑ earthdog: Aquilonian. (No longer available online.) Hellride Music, archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; Retrieved June 3, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Fred Pessaro: We talked to Bongzilla about Weed. Noisey, accessed May 3, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Arne: Bongzilla (Amerijuanican). Music scan, accessed June 3, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Captain Chaos: BONGZILLA: Amerijuanican. Vampster, accessed June 3, 2014 .
- ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2007, ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9 , pp. 59 .
- ^ Simone Pfundstein: Bongzilla . Gateway. In: Metal Hammer . September 1999, p. 92 .
