Bokassa – All Out of Dreams
Release Date: 16th February 2024
Label: Indie Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Punk, Stoner Metal, Hardcore Punk.
FFO: Red Fang, Clutch, Torche.
Review By: Paul Cairney
All Out of Dreams is the 4th album by Norwegian trio Bokassa. It is an album that sits astride differing genres with genuine ease, confidence and, to be perfectly blunt, downright arrogance. This album is genre defying and exceptionally enjoyable to listen to.
Part of the reason is that you just don’t know what is coming next. One track will have a massive stoner rock riff and the next melds into a hardcore-esque punky number, still boasting enormously satisfying riffs attacking your senses at all times.
This is exemplified by one of the albums strongest tracks, ‘Bradford Death Squadron’, a stoner bruiser that fires off majestic riffs accompanied by a ridiculously strong vocal performance. Red Fang’s Aaron Beam offers his support on this one, to great effect. On the multiple listens this album was given, this was the song I looked forward to hearing most. It seemed to get better each time I heard it.
‘Everyone Falls Tonight’, is a hypnotic hardcore track that kicks your arse, hits on your girlfriend before pissing off back to where it came from, all in the space of a 46-second run-time. What genre album is this again?
All Out of Dreams is a massive step-up from their previous releases. Although holding much of the same intensity, similar run times and genre-bending tracks, Bokassa just seem, well, better at it now. This is the album of a band who are utterly comfortable in their being. It does not suffer from the differing genres, it benefits. It is consistently surprising, and the fact that the band deliver each track as if they have sat in that particular genre for a lifetime is testament to the quality of the album.
If you are to buy one stoner, hardcore, punk, rock, metal etc. album this year, make it All Out of Dreams. You will not be disappointed.
(4 / 5)
