Bongripper was a band I first came across in October 2023, so I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on them. I have, however, been listening to doom metal for over a decade.
This album is perhaps a Top 3 release of all time in the realm of stoner/doom metal. As an experience, Hippie Killer takes you through various moods and atmospheres, yet doesn't shy away from being immensely brutal and harsh at times. The album is structured (mostly) in a Song/Ambient/Song/Ambient pattern, which provides an incredibly engulfing atmosphere. The ambient tracks are both warm AND harsh - Tranny Ride, the opening track, is more on the neutral side, and Osaria is perhaps the most friendly track on the album.
The album as a whole is an incredible experience, but there are some song combinations which I'd recommend for listeners who don't necessarily want to invest 80 minutes, but would rather enjoy a small tasting. 'Tranny Ride' into 'Reefer Sutherland' is what opens the album, and is a good display of the contrasting tracklist which swings back and forth from a brutal beating to a warm bath. My personal favourite section of the album is 'Terrible Bear Attack' into 'Je M'appelle' into 'The People Mover'. These three tracks perfectly encapsulate the feel of the album for me. T.B.A is a bit of an outlier within the tracklist, with its speedy drumming and addition of vocals. Fading into Je M'appelle, which begins with the same "screaming" sound on loop for a bit before it suddenly goes into spacey ambiance, almost like the world was deleted, and now you're floating endlessly in space. The People Mover is what completes this section - perhaps the most head-banger riff on the entire album, with beautiful progressions, for over 10 minutes.
Obviously, we can't gloss over the MONSTER of a track, 'Charlie, Burt Reynolds Has Got S*** on You'. A surprisingly emotion-evoking beginning with soft guitar melodies, which progressively moves into increasingly harsher and harsher doom sound, and stands at over 17 minutes long. An incredible track from start to finish.
Overall, this tracklisting is the cream of the crop when it comes to doom and stoner metal. There's something oddly... accepting about this album. While others might be too harsh for beginners to the genre, I'd personally recommend Hippie Killer to anyone who hasn't heard it yet because it mixes two opposing energies very well, and packages them neatly into a single experience. For fans of either ambient music, stoner/doom metal, or perhaps both, Hippie Killer is a must-listen - very few albums can provide such a vivid and gripping (pun intended) experience as this one does.
Looking for a similar experience to this? Check out The Great Barrier Reefer album by the same band, or Dopesmoker by Sleep.
There are a lot of bands that have some kind of pun or marijuana reference in their name when it comes to doom/stoner metal bands, I'm not going to comment on whether I think they are better or worse, but I will say that I think the fact that there are a lot of names like that makes people associate that kind of name with that type of music, so they will have a generic look at bands that have that sort of name.
I say this because it seems to me the most logical reason why this album is not much more discussed than it should be, I have not immersed myself in all of Bongripper's discography and it seems that they have some rather weak albums, but if we talk specifically about this album we can say that we are in front of one of the most complete albums in the musical style that Bongripper works.
Doom, stoner, sludge, drone, ambient, post metal, all this has a place in 80 minutes (almost) entirely instrumental. "Hippie Killer" is totally ambitious but manages to show the best of each genre and the best of each member. For types of music that focus a lot on repetition and slowness, the guys from Bongripper know how to approach and solve the listener's needs, to give an example of this: After a brief ambient track that opens the album, the immense song "Reefer Sutherland" starts with a powerful sludge riff that sets the tone, but the piece gradually progresses and makes changes in its structure and dynamics, by the time you want to realize a initially slow cut track is having a dizzying final stretch that feels like a permanent ascent through an instrumentalization with high traces of post-metal. Contrasting a song with so many changes we have "Her Highness" as the final track where the band works on the same riff that goes on for thirteen minutes, the passages around that riff are changing to make it interesting but the song is based much more on repetition than the opening track of the album itself. This is the contrast I wanted to show exemplified, the album starts with the track that varies the most throughout its own duration so that the listener feels comfortable when he starts his adventure through an album of such big dimensions, as the tracks progress the songs become more dense and repetitive, even so the guys from Bongripper knew what they were doing with these tracks, far are these songs from sounding like improvisations, everything is measured and calculated to make the songs dynamic and at the same time thick when they require it.
I love that each track goes for a different style, plus they know when to use something briefly for atmosphere or impact, as in the cases of "Droid Developer" or "Terrible Bear Attack" which shows an incredibly aggressive and voracious side of the band that is barely explored, but I understand that's the point. Still I feel that these shorter tracks serve to keep the pace up during the first half of the album. The last forty minutes are taken up by the last three songs, the aforementioned "Her Highness", the post-rockish "Charlie, Burt Reynolds Has Got Shit On You" and the drone track "Thanks for Sticking Around". I could easily say that this is the best part of the whole album because it perfectly combines the soft melodies and the heaviest and roughest sound imaginable, but the truth is that the whole album feels like a great piece of work that keeps the level up. And all of this is possible and connects so well because, although Bongripper has no problem stopping in one segment for severe minutes, at no point do the songs stop progressing, it's incredible to feel such a great dynamism in such a long album that touches so many areas.
I think this album works best when you listen to it once in a while, there are too many riffs and leads to remember them all so the more you forget about it the better because it will surprise you every time you listen to it. "Hippie Killer is an album that doesn't reinvent anything but does everything well, a masterclass in various genres and a hard to repeat experience. It's more atmospheric than the usual stoner, heavier than the usual post-rock, denser than the usual sludge, "Hippie Killer" is just more overall, I can't imagine other albums that manage to make such a long record into such a smooth and comfortable experience. And if you haven't listened to it yet, get to it because it's not an album that leaves you indifferent.
When I first heard of a band called "Bongripper" I immediately thought "oh my god, again one of these standard stoner-sludge bands like Belzebong". Don't get the wrong end of the stick. There are absolutely great stoner-sludge records out there. Bongzilla is a great example of that, but one might get the feeling that most of the newcomer bands of this genre get boring pretty fast and focus too much on sounding like the "masters" than creating their own authentic style. However, a friend of mine told me Bongripper made some really nice records, so I took the "Hippie Killer" on my mp3-player, went to a river nearby my home, heard Black Sabbath's Paranoid for a 1000000th time, and the next band in the alphabetical order was Bongripper. As I said, I didn't expect that much, but what I heard totally blew me away.
Hippie Killer starts with an atmospheric intro that takes about two minutes. After this rather quiet introduction to this brutal masterpiece, it's time for their first "hit" on this record called "Reefer Sutherland", 16 minutes beginning with a brutal sludge riff that will stay in your head for the rest of the month. The song goes on and at some point it breaks and gets more and more atmospheric, even Yawning Man-style psychedelic. At this point you could think it's rather Hippie Creator than Hippie Killer, but when "Terrible Bear Attack", a classic and aggressive sludge song (and by the way, the only Bongripper song with vocals) begins, you first realize how low their instruments are tuned. I guess it's A-D-G-C-E-A. The songs "Osaria", "Je m'appelle", "Droid Developer", as well as the intro, "Tranny Ride", act more like connections between the other songs to keep the album flowing.
Another part you don't expect is the 2nd hit, "Charlie, Burt Reynolds Has Got Shit on You", which sounds like a really, really deep post-rock/post-metal song. Very atmospheric, very emotional, and very melancholic. Melancholic highness is caught in a song, but not played. It's really fuckin' authentic and touching, as kitschy as it might sound. This is one of the songs that prove that Bongripper are NOT like all the other stoner-sludge bands out there, but pay attention, this might not be your kind of style if you are not familiar with atmospheric sludge bands like Isis or Cult of Luna.
But seriously, the way "Charlie, Burt Reynolds Has Got Shit on You" is less brutal, the last two tracks, "Thanks for Sticking Around" and "Her Highness", are even more brutal. "Thanks for Sticking Around" isn't even sludge. It's drone/doom. I am still stunned that these guys had the balls to write a fuckin' drone/doom song for this album even if it's one of the weaker songs (which doesn't mean it's weak, by the way). To complete this album, "Her Highness" shows the hypnotizing effects of a great riff within weird timing. 13 minutes, just one heavy riff, and nice breaks and stuff to create an atmosphere full of pressure.
To finally summarize, what I found here is a fuckin' great piece of art. As long as you love sludge and you are an open-minded person, you will love this record. It contains deep, brutal, and pissed sludge, atmospheric post-metal/atmospheric sludge, and even some drone/doom. Even if one doesn't like it, everyone has to admit it's a really interesting record that's worth checking out.
It's bad that Bongripper need an introduction, because they're so fucking awesome, writing one seems so useless. Their sound is so massive and loud, it's a wonder they haven't been heard across the globe. Instead, they remain a shadow in the dark alley where you buy your drugs that is the American doom scene, or a gem so rare that you can't help but hoard it all for yourself.
Hippie Killer, the band's sophomore output, is by far the best thing they've released and easily one of the best doom records ever. Track titles like "Reefer Sutherland" (best song title EVER) and "Terrible Bear Attack" completely understate the lethargic ferocity and overall seriousness that shrouds this doom epic. The tracks are all long and destructive (save for "Terrible Bear Attack", the obligatory thrash track), the excruciating sludge broken up by much-needed breathing room in the form of super-spacey drone tracks that are long enough to give you a break and not overstay their welcome. There really isn't a dull moment to be found, even on "Her Highness", which consists of one simple riff played for 13 minutes. The whole shebang is gift-wrapped in a gorgeous production job that still manages to be super-crushing during the ample heavy moments.
The offerings here are also pretty eclectic for a doom release (read: more than one style of doom is employed -- and employed well). After a brief (and really creepy) drone intro, "Reefer Sutherland" kicks off the album; as in, it's a total kick to the teeth. The crisp and clear but brutally heavy guitar tone comes crashing down suddenly; riff-bombs collapsing your roof. The band's expertly-executed doom riffs gradually lead into one of the most profound and harrowing post-metal climaxes, one so grand it almost makes Neurosis seem tame, with a truly beautiful bassline that sounds like it should've made it onto Oceanic, and a frenzied battle between the wild drumming and tumultuous guitar textures.
"Terrible Bear Attack" is the only fast track present, and one of the only tracks the band has ever recorded with vocals. Though mostly a raving thrash attack, it has one hell of a sludgy breakdown and a crazy segue into the bizarre "Je m'appelle", which is followed up directly by "The People Mover", the album's second behemoth. Here, things get a little less traditional (don't let the opening riff fool you) when a swirling monsoon of lysergide guitar noodling and fantastic bass work takes center stage between the devastating stoner-doom choruses.
After that, things slow down a lot. "Charlie..." is a relatively gentle, relaxed post-metal epic that develops some delicate opening notes into a textured tremolo torpedo travelling fast into the hull of a fragile ship. Bongripper then bust out the Sunn O))) for "Thanks for Sticking Around", subduing the listener into a drowsy trance before "Her Highness" comes in for one final bludgeoning. The song is one simple riff played ad-nausea with little variation, floating on the melting conveyor-belt-world of a bad acid trip. For the 13 minutes. Then suddenly, the album is over and the listener exhausted, presumably.
The gents in Bongripper out-did (an understatement, really) themselves on this album and bestowed upon us a doom metal classic to rival the reigns of everyone from Electric Wizard and Ufomammut to Neurosis and Minsk. They still don't get the recognition they deserve -- even within the doom scene. But hopefully one day this will go beyond being just a pristine underground jewel and see the same (in)fame that Dopethrone and Dopesmoker amassed, for Hippie Killer is indeed a classic among metal.
Bongripper is a stoner/doom/post-metal outfit from Chicago. All of the members are just in it for the love of music and don’t care about money; from what I read in another review of this album, one of them even leaked it onto the internet. The brand of sludgy psychedelia on Hippie Killer is excellent; it is almost entirely instrumental (with the exception of the track “Terrible Bear Attack”) I do have to admit that I didn’t enjoy the drumless, dronier tracks as much as the doomier ones, but the latter type tend to be much longer so it’s okay. I also thought the album went on a bit too long; at just under the maximum 80 minutes for a CD, it felt like the band was just trying too hard to fill out the entire thing. Also, I felt the vocals on “Terrible Bear Attack” were really annoying, and I was glad that track was just 3 minutes long.
Those are my only real quibbles with the album, though; it’s wonderfully atmospheric with crushing riffs, and I totally would’ve gotten high to this if my social skills were good enough to obtain weed. My personal favorite track was the 16-minute “Reefer Sutherland,” although most of the album was strong. Fans of this style of metal will love Hippie Killer.
Originally posted at metal-jerks.com