ALBUM REVIEW: Thought & Existence – Bong

Existentialism. Expedition. Existence. An existential expedition across the ever-tearing fabric of existence is a thought few artists ever consider attempting to convey lyrically, let alone sonically and yet on Thought & Existence, the latest opus from monolithic drone-doom shamans BONG, the mind is firmly collapsed and coalesced within a monochrome kaleidoscope of epic proportions that’ll leave you questioning the very purpose of your role as a human being on this here planet we call Earth.

Despite Thought & Existence leaving the longest gap between records BONG have ever left, renowned for their album-a-year mentality, it clocks in as one of the shortest strolls through the sonic plains of the nether, and is all the better for it. Whereas previous efforts have felt overdrawn, as if to overcompensate for their lack of lyrical accompaniment perhaps, the two tracks that comprise the makeup of Thought & Existence play out like songs that were planned so delicately and thoroughly, they could’ve been military-grade operations that, like the record itself physically was, years in the making.

On the surface the apples here don’t fall too far from the tree, with both of the album’s tracks cantering around a monolithic doom-laden riff that travels through your earlobes consciously and seeps through to your subconscious, like a tapeworm burrowing itself in your brain. However, much of this record detaches itself from its predecessors, instead opting for an expansion of the senses sonically within a much more constrained period of time, leaving the listener feeling, ironically, stretched across the surface of time itself.

Tion Uqbar Orbis Tertius drifts away from the drone of opener The Golden Fields, opting for a warping distortion of psychedelia, a singular riff ripping up the rule book in such a way it questions whether the codes and conventions were ever there in the first place. In fact, whilst Thought & Existence’s first half pays homage to the BONG we know and love, its second half embraces the existential crisis of existence that riddles the opening tracks dirge of doom by dismantling the trademark sound, warping and distorting as they traditionally would, but in an entirely new way.

Thought & Existence is an opus you must commit to journeying over a period of time, it simply isn’t a one-trip wonder, but instead a sentient entity that grows as you do, its fabric changing with yours, its thought pattern growing with yours, until, at its fading finale, you become one symbiotic being.

At first glance, it may even feel as if the shamans of Newcastle are simply playing it safe, and yet it is difficult to find fault in this evolution of their sound, that whilst paying homage to some of their recent work, simultaneously disregards it. Thirteen years and eight albums in, and BONG have truly cemented themselves as the undisputed shamans of drone.

Rating: 8/10 

Thought & Existence is out now via Ritual Productions.

Like BONG on Facebook.