Hippie Killer

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.