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BONGZILLA :
GATEWAY

Things must be a pretty colour of green in Madison Wisconsin, if ya know what I mean, as it's home to the lords of the leaf, known collectively as Bongzilla. Which, incidentally has to be one of the greatest band names of all time. The band (Mike "Magma" Henry - drums, Nate "Cooter Brown" Dethlefsen - bass, Mike "Muleboy" Makela - guitars / vocals, and Jeff "Spanky" Schultz - guitar) started out in the mid '90s, put out some 7"s, and got on some compilations. Then, after some well-received demos made their way to Relapse Records, the boys got to see their first mass release with the 1998 mini CD called "Methods For Attaining Extreme Altitudes". There were only 3 songs, but it still clocked in at over 26 minutes! Then in '99 they delivered their first full-length, aptly titled "Stash". Then there was a release called "Shake: The Singles", which is a collection of all the early hard to find singles etc. on CD. "Gateway" is their latest offering to the world. As you've probably figured out by now, Bongzilla is all about the THC. While other bands are trying to separate themselves from the over populated Stoner-Rock or Stoner-Metal genre, Bongzilla continues to wave the flag high and proud. Sure, musically, you could make arguments that they fall into Doom-Metal, or Sludge territory, but with their lyrics and image being what they are, we'll have to call it Stoner-Metal. Every single song is about weed, all of 'em! Well, "Hashdealer" is about hash, but that's a weed derivative, and that's as far as they stretch topic wise. My favorite song title on this weed love-in has to be "666lb. Bongsession"... classic. Even the many samples on the disc are all about weed, including the intro to "Stone a Pig", which is a bit of classic dialogue from Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". When Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is reciting his train-station drug deal story to Mr. White (Chris Penn). The music, as you can expect, is pretty damn heavy, slow groove laden riffs, and the required ultra low-tuned bottom end are both present. Muleboy's vocals are harsh and raspy, and buried 6 feet under everything else in the mix. Which I think is done on purpose solely to get people to crank the volume to 10. It's not all very unique, or new, but they deliver the goods as promised, with more passion than most. Fans that are already devoted to the band will proclaim this pure gold, others will just find it a damn fine listen. For more info, you can visit the closest things they have to an official web page at Relapse Records and mp3.com.
RATING = 7.5 Stoner-Metal (Released 2002)

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