| Bongripper | |
|---|---|
 Bongripper. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Genres | Doom Metal, Sludge Metal |
| Years active | 2005 - present |
| Labels | The Great Barrier Records |
| Associated acts | Weekend Nachos |
| Website | Official Page |
| Current members | Ronald Petzke Daniel O'Connor Nick Dellacroce Dennis Pleckham |
Bongripper are an instrumental sludge band from Chicago, Illinois. Active since 2005, this four-piece is best known for releasing six albums over a ten-year career of instrumental doom and sludge almost entirely as a DIY independent entity (With occasional exceptions in regards to working with labels). The band has toured around the world including two key performances at Roadburn Festival that the band themselves hailed as among their all-time best performances.
Despite being an instrumental band, Bongripper's themes are all based on satire and dark humor. The band's themes in album and song titles are all jokes on hatred for hippies, inside jokes, sarcasm and parodies of drug culture, doom and a general hatred for mankind. The name of the band itself is a parody on Sleep as cited in the following: "Nick came up with the name Bongripper as a joke one day after we decided that Sleep wasted 17 minutes of CD time with Dopesmoker. The name stuck since."[1]
History
Formation and Improvisation (2005 - 2009)
Bongripper formed in 2005 when an intended practice session for a death metal band changed drastically once one of the kick pedals broke and the singer no-showed, with the music slowing and deviating from there. The band went into a studio in August that year to record an eighty-minute song. Bongripper would go on to self-release this as The Great Barrier Reefer and play shows around the Chicago area. The band would follow up with two more albums in 2007: An anti-hippie instrumental album coyly named Hippie Killer and another album simply titled Heroin, which was initially featured in a box set with burnt spoons and other items (Though some items were left out due to customs). [2]
The band would follow with a collaborative EP in Meat Ditch and their next album entitled Hate Ashbury, a parody on the Haight Ashbury district in San Fransisco and a follow-up on their general anti-hippie theme.[3]
Satan Worshipping Doom & Touring (2010 - 2013)
On 13 August 2010 Bongripper would release their fifth album Satan Worshipping Doom which in turn garnered heavy praise among critics and the stoner/doom scene with the band citing the title as "utterly ridiculous". In an interview with Doomed and Stoned the members of Bongripper spoke about the unexpected praise, the subsequent turn to vinyl and the release itself:
| “ | “[In regards if the success and praise was expected] No. (laughs) I knew we had good songs. We got approached by some labels to put it out and no one really wanted to take the risk and do vinyl. We were doing vinyl. That was already decided. If you’re in, you’re in. So we did it ourselves, took a risk and put it out on vinyl. Did I expect it to sell so well? No. No, I did not. It’s kind of shocking. To put it in perspective, we sold out of the 300 LP’s before the release show! We put it out on a Friday. I wanna say seven weeks out, we had our release show. So we thought, we’d still have plenty of records left. We took those two hundred to the show and sold eighty. It was in a record store. We blew the power, four times.” | ” |
— Dennis Pleckham, Doomed and Stoned [4]
|
On 16 May 2011 the band would release a 7" EP entitled Sex Tape / Snuff Film with the title being an inside joke among band members.[5] Bongripper would partially tour in 2011 and expand their shows beyond Chicago when their schedules permitted.[6] In late 2011 it was announced the band would play out of the United States for the first time. On 14 and 15 April 2012 the band performed at Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, one performance being the entire Satan Worshipping Doom album. Both performances would be released in 2012 in a 2CD format with the album performance as a standalone 2LP release.
In 2013 the band would tour the UK with Conan and Humanfly along with a split with the same band and a separate split with the band Hate.[7]
Miserable (2014 - Present)
In late 2013 it would be announced that Bongripper would have a new album ready for release in 2014. Their sixth album, simply titled Miserable, was released on 7 July 2014 with a string of shows and festival appearances following.
The band toured a string of dates in 2015 including a second appearance at Roadburn and an event sponsored by Thief Booking entitled Way of The Shred.[8]
In 2016 the band would tour Europe with Ghold[9], appear at a host of different festivals, celebrate their tenth anniversary on 8 August[10] and perform a special curated set celebrating the 20th anniversaries of The Hideout and 3 Floyd's.[11]
Discography
Studio Albums
- The Great Barrier Reefer (2006)
- Hippie Killer (2007)
- Heroin (2007)
- Hate Ashbury (2008)
- Satan Worshipping Doom (2010)
- Miserable (2014)
Misc. Releases
- Meat Ditch (Collaboration with Winters in Osaka) (2008)
- Sex Tape / Snuff Film (EP) (2011)
- Live At Roadburn 2012 (Live Album) (2012)
- Bongripper // Hate (Split with Hate) (2013)
- Zero Talent / Beheaded (Split with Conan) (2013)
Members
- Ronald Petzke - Bass (2005 - Present)
- Daniel O'Connor - Drums (2005 - Present)
- Nick Dellacroce - Guitars (2005 - Present)
- Dennis Pleckham - Guitars (2005 - Present)
External Links
References
- ↑ It's Psychedelic BabyAccessed 28 January 2017
- ↑ The Sleeping ShamanAccessed 8 February 2017
- ↑ Metal RecusantsAccessed 8 February 2017
- ↑ Doomed and Stoned accessed 10 February 2017
- ↑ Metal RecusantsAccessed 10 February 2017
- ↑ BrooklynVeganAccessed 10 February 2017
- ↑ Echoes and DustAccessed 10 February 2017
- ↑ FacebookAccessed 10 February 2017
- ↑ The Obelisk
- ↑ Bongripper Facebook
- ↑ Bongripper FacebookAccessed 10 February 2017
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