Bong-Ra - I Am The God of Hellfire
After getting my skull pummeled by Grindkrusher and my brain tossed in a blender by Monsters of Mashup, I was expecting a full-length release by Bong-Ra to leave me in a small puddle of bone meal and tenderized fat. Surprisingly, I Am The God of Hellfire doesn't trample the listener as much as I expected. Sure, I wish I had a better sub-woofer on my system so I could really shake the neighborhood, but it wasn't the insane beat-down I had prepped for.
Which isn't to say that Bong-Ra has gone all soft on us. No, he's just mercurial, difficult to pigeon-hole and hell-bent on shaking the dust off all these genre markers we've gotten so complacent with that we're not quite sure what to do with a guy who so gleefully runs them together. "Skool Ov Violence," for example, stomps in as a downtempo piece but has such a ginormous bottom that it can barely fit through the door. Coupled a claustrophobic density of percussion and a profusion of wailing guitar lines, it knocks a hole in the genre classification and lurches through dark-hop and electro-rock on its way out. "Redrum" and "Pop That Cristal" are ostensibly rap songs (both feature Mike Redman on the mic) but are filled with such a howling low-end and heavy drum 'n' bass vibe that they make East Coast rap about as dangerous as getting slapped by a piece of limp celery. Hanin Elias' sex-kitten howls in "Go Tiger!" is an anthemic call to arms for dominatrixes -- a 'get your whips out, girls!' rallying cry -- filled with the sonic thunder of a dungeon full of sweaty slaves banging on drums.
"The Claw" takes down Shaggy and eviscerates him in a very messy way as Ras Bumpa rides the Bong-Ra thunder into the dancehall. While Ras undulates with the vocal slipperiness of a well-blunted reggae singer, Bong-Ra mixes heavy beats, the barking growl of a tiger and skittering drum 'n' bass into a suffocating dub plate of heavy menace. "White Horse Come Soon," one of the purely instrumental tracks on the record, riffs around a sample from a Clint Eastwoof film while churning metal guitars into slow motion Godflesh noises and applying IDM propensities to a clattering rhythmic structure. Its the sound of Death, galloping down on you, all THX-ready.
I Am The God of Hellfire isn't about beating you to a pulp with BPMs in the 200s. It's about choking you with heavy rhythms and a dense cross-pollination of dancehall, jungle, downtempo, rave and metal. It's about making you beg for the sting of the lash and a boot to the ass. "Rave you fuckers!" is the primal commandment printed on the inner sleeve. Bong-Ra wants you to move with such complete abandon that you sprain something. Anything. Just stopping sitting there. Being dead won't save you. I Am The God of Hellfire will dig up your coffin and make your skeleton dance.
Bong-Ra
Ad Noiseam [2005]
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