From across the international underground, titanic darlings of doom Conan and Bongripper have collected in glorious exaltation of distortion to deliver a merciless barrage of sludge and stone, with a head-splitting synergy sure to send shock waves throughout their respective scenes.
Released on Holy Roar Records in celebration of the bands’ upcoming UK tour, this split 12” is heavy enough to alter our planet’s circumsolar orbit and send us on a collision course with the Sun.
At 17 minutes, ‘Beheaded’ is as bruising and unrelenting as anything Conan have recorded. The track unfolds with all the poetic reprise of a car crash in a cathedral – heavy, reverberant, and with an appalling sense of unease that means you can’t look away.
Beginning with Paul O’Neil’s steady drums before being smothered in a filthy lather of guitar and bass courtesy of Jon Davis and Phil Coumbe, Conan have created a monster that lumbers with all the grace and fragility of a three-legged elephant. At around five minutes, just as Davis and Coumbe’s unholy onslaught threatens to tear a hole in time, O’Neil mercifully introduces some much-needed ride cymbal to counteract their demented wailing and trudging low frequencies. The 12 minute mark sees the addition of sweeping phaser effects that coat the track in a brisant slime which fizzes away as the song lurches toward its conclusion.
At just under ten minutes, ‘Zero Talent’ is comparatively modest but thankfully no less feculent. Like some almighty aural mummification, Bongripper paint your brain in hot sludge so vicious you’ll find it hard to think.
An eerie electronic introduction is eventually shattered by leaden slabs of guitar rained down by Nick Dellacroce and Dennis Pleckham, bolstered by Ron Petzke’s massive bass. Interludes between drones allow drummer Dan O’Connor to explore his kit with escalating expression midway through. The final third sees his increasing urgency manifested in eighth notes on the kick drum which guide the track to its fierce crescendo. Suddenly, unexpected blasts of snare unravel with reckless abandon as the band charge forth with the ferocity of stampeding rhinos. But Bongripper retain enough deftness for a few final surprises. They punctuate their advance with brief moments of stillness, halting and resuming the charge to create a dynamic and exhilarating end.
With this release Holy Roar Records have collected the weight and aggression of a million years worth of mountainous landscape evolution, condensed it into 26 minutes and used it to kill us all. When mankind has long since melted and the Earth is little more than a charred black pebble smoking in the kiln of the Sun, it’ll be because in 2013, Conan and Bongripper sent us slowly spinning toward an apocalyptic helioholocaust we were powerless to stop.
Happy trails.
8.0/10
Sean McGeady
Conan – Facebook