Bong - S/T & Bethmoora

One of the most prolific bands in the doom scene for CD releases has to be Bong from the UK. At last count they have been involved in releasing 7 split albums, 6 live albums with another one on the way called "Gilgamesh Lives". They even cheekily released a best of album and they even have a 3CD box set of more material for sale. On the top of all that they have a couple of full length albums out which i am going to review right now. If you have never heard this band, then you have to hear them to understand how heavy this band really is. The word "heavy" is overused and abused in the world these days, i mean every metal band can be called "heavy" to a certain extent. The other problem is when you listen to nothing but heavy bands( as i do ) it gets to a point where you become immune to the heavy guitars, thundering drums and screaming or growling vocals and you start to wonder what is heavy anymore. Sometimes though a band comes along just seems beyond what is considered heavy by modern standards and one of those bands is Bong. Bong have taken the Sabbath blueprint of doom, the pot-filled haze of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" album,the slow monolithic dirge of early Electric Wizard, the mysticism of Om, some Amplifier Worship era Boris and put in a meat-grinder,dropped too much acid and produced some of the most sickest music ever. Both these albums are not easy listening by any stretch of the imagination, they are lumbering, droning, monolithic in both heaviness and intensity. Some of the drone sounds can be compared with Sunn O))) but Bong are far intense in their delivery than that band, the guitars have a perfect deep tone, dense, warm and rich but also organic to the point where is sounds like they are in your room playing just for you. The sound they create engulfs you and leaves you feeling like you just took some bad acid while leaving you crushed by the sheer magnitude of the heaviness but its just not loud guitars, the mood is what is truly heavy. The self-titled album begins with the 16 minute "Wizards of Krull" which features a sitar, you may wonder how a sitar can work in doom but it not only works, it is pure genius. The track has a constant rhythmic emotional pull that never lets up and is so engaging it never feels like a 16 minutes track. The other track "The Starlit Grotto" is equally as huge in terms of sound but if anything it has a even more psychedelic stoner trance vibe to it. "Dave Terry" who plays bass also handles the vocals, his chanting style only adds to the trance-like vibe. This is one of those rare albums that only come along once every few years if you are lucky and if you strive to hear the heaviest music you can find, then this is a essential brain-altering experience. This is "heavy" at its most pure. 10/10

The other album from Bong i received(yes 2 Bong albums in one day should be illegal) is "Bethmoora" which was recorded not too long before the other album you just read about. The band has certainly got a incredible body of work behind them. Once again this is a CD for those of you who dig Sleep, Electric Wizard, Yob but also like the space rock sounds of Pink Floyd. This is a 2CD set containing 2 original monster tracks and a stunning cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". "The Stone Mountain" kicks off the first CD in the same spawling monolithic fashion as the previous album i reviewed does, it borrows heavily from Sleep's "Dopesmoker" album with heavy amounts of reverb and this tune is play at a real crawling pace. So slow at times, its almost painful to listen to but i am a sucker for this kind of pain so bring it on. At 24 minutes, its quite a journey and is for the hardcore doom fan, you scene kids better run and hide from this beast. The second track "Bethmoora" is a little different, still doom and still incredibly heavy but it heads into some type of psychedelic nightmare and spits you out at the other end feeling dazed and hungover. The song builds and builds till the tension is almost unbearable, the distorted guitar sound and rumbling bass lines surround you for over 20 minutes and just when you expect some sort of big finish, its over. Put on the second disc and you know that bass-line, its Pink Floyd's classic tune "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". I have never thought of Pink Floyd as a doom band but hearing this version makes you think they might have had some doom vision themselves. I always preferred the live version of the track on "Ummagumma" and this take on it is closer to that than Floyd's studio version. Bong reinterprets the track sightly to fit in with their doom agenda but this is still a total space rock journey of the most cosmic magnitude. The guitar roars and soars, vocals have that chanting style and there is a drum sound that would give Nick Mason a heart attack if he heard it, its totally thunderous to the extreme. The combination of Sabbath-ian heaviness and Floyd-ian spaciness is the band's sound of course so it works like a charm on this cover version. The great thing about Bong is while they doing something that has been done before, they are of the few bands that have truly taken it to the next level of sonic insanity. For the hardcore psychedelic doom purist maybe but a band that i can listen to all day. 10/10

Bong @ Myspace