Bokassa: Blunt Force Karma
“I never heard anything from NICKELBACK, but I did get sent a picture of Matt Heafy flipping us off. I don’t imagine Chad Kroeger would ever hear our music,” laughs Jørn Kaarstad, guitarist and singer for BOKASSA. He’s reminiscing about Captain Cold One, a track from their 2019 Crimson Riders album. It’s a satirical look at a stereotypical dude-bro, who “gets by on NICKELBACK and TRIVIUM” and can name all the characters in a Kevin James movie. It’s a light-hearted number with a touch of swagger, a perfect good-time rock and roll song.
Until now, it’s been a pretty good way to sum up BOKASSA and how they approach their music. Their first three albums are bruising, anthemic and cool as hell. The Norwegian trio have been brimming with confidence since day one and their rip-roaring mix of stoner riffs and punk energy has won them a lot of fans. But on their fourth album, things take a darker turn.
On the surface, All Out Of Dreams is textbook BOKASSA. It’s just over half an hour long, the songs are punchy and waste no time getting to the choruses, and there is an abundance of groove. Musically, BOKASSA are still the good-time rockers of old, but pay closer attention to the lyrics and you’ll notice a biting cynicism creeping in. Their sense of humour is still there, but it’s been joined by a frustration and anger at the state of the modern world.
“I like THE WILDHEARTS, I also think of bands like NOFX and BAD RELIGION, kinda doing an upbeat sound but the lyrics have a more serious theme,” explains Jørn. “Usually I layer it behind loads of irony and references, maybe it’s more up front this time. It’s less tongue-in-cheek.”
This is perhaps most prominent on Let’s Storm The Capitol, a mid-album track that takes a scathing look at the people involved in the January 6th attacks. As Jørn explains, it’s a song that tries to get into the mindset of someone who’s been brainwashed but is absolutely convinced that their thoughts are their own, even as they’re smashing in windows and trying to break into Congress.
“A lot of those people didn’t know what they were doing, someone populistic was taking advantage of them. There are cases where people just want to be part of something. I’m not saying that’s the case there, but in general, with subcultures and everything. There were probably people there who just wanted to belong.”
There is a definite pessimistic streak and a hefty dose of fatalism here, but that doesn’t mean BOKASSA have decided to wallow in sadness. All Out Of Dreams is an album that raises hell in spite of itself, it’s the sound of a massive party raging across the deck of a sinking ocean liner and their frontman is incredibly proud of it.
“I think it’s the best representation of what BOKASSA is. It has the metallic riffage from our first album, the melodies and hooks that I’m very fond of. I don’t want to be boring. I basically write for myself and I like bands with good hooks and good riffs, that’s what we want to do. I think this one strikes a nice balance; Divide And Conquer was a more ‘dirty metal record,’ whereas Molotov Rocktail was more fun. This one was maybe dialled a bit down, but without compromising anything. I always have issues with our albums afterwards. I listen and I think ‘maybe I should have slowed this riff, or turned the vocals down here,’ but with this one there’s much less than the other albums. If anyone’s trying to get into our band, I’d give them this record.”
Once you hear songs like Gung Ho, Bradford Death Squad and the hair-raising finale of Crush (All Heretics), you’ll understand why. All Out Of Dreams is a classic all killer, no filler record that doesn’t waste a second. It’s a lean collection of bangers, where every song is a potential single in waiting. It’s also the first BOKASSA record to feature guest vocalists; Aaron Beam of RED FANG and Lou Koller of SICK OF IT ALL make appearances, but never show up the gravel-throated frontman. Notably, both come from bands with a similar mindset to BOKASSA. SICK OF IT ALL for example, have plenty of socio-political lyrics, but there’s a biting undercurrent of humour to their work as well.
In other words, All Out Of Dreams marks the fourth time in a row that BOKASSA have delivered the goods. Their first album saw them touring with METALLICA and attracting mainstream attention, but despite things cooling off somewhat since then, they’re well placed to take their brand of high-octane stoner punk to an increasingly enthusiastic audience. With the benefit of hindsight though, their frontman is starting to question whether coming up with the ‘stoner punk’ tag was a good idea:
“We coined that term back in 2013. I did a hashtag search and there was nothing for it, but we were combining stoner rock riffs with punk speed and thought it fit. I guess that has been more of a crutch for us, as people are not good at checking out new stuff. They’re used to reading taglines and that’s fine, but people assume we’re stoner rock and we’re not! With the exception of CLUTCH, FU MANCHU, KYUSS and MONSTER MAGNET, that’s one of the most boring things I know. I can’t stand it, so I tried speeding it up. I should have called us ‘metal punk’ or something. It’s not just the audience, we get record labels saying that there’s no stoner in it!”
All Out Of Dreams is out now via Indie Recordings.
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