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Bongzilla have been the patron saints of weed-worshipping sludge since they crawled out of Madison, Wisconsin in 1995, Mike "Muleboy" Makela at the helm. Crushingly slow, hypnotic, riffs thick as resin: stoner, doom, and drone bent into one continuous exhale, with cannabis culture written into every lyric. After the Relapse run and a stretch on hiatus, they came back hungry, and Dab City (2023, Heavy Psych Sounds) is the sixth full-length proof.
No festival history to claim here, so we will keep it honest: our connection is that we loved this record enough to press it as a Levitation Edition. Splatter LP, limited to 200. That is the tie, and it is reason enough.
Seven tracks, roughly an hour, cut to analog tape at Future Apple Tree Studio, and you can feel every minute of that tape hiss and tube warmth. This is an ode to THC and to Madison (the "Mad City" of the title), and the band leans all the way into the patience the genre demands. C.A.R.T.S is the obvious entry point, the riff locking in and refusing to let go, but the deeper cuts are where the record breathes, the low end swelling and receding like smoke off a slow burn.
Honest minor gripe: an hour at this tempo asks a lot, and a couple of the mid-set passages drift longer than they need to. If you want urgency, look elsewhere. Bongzilla are not in a hurry, and that is the whole point.
That heaviness is exactly why it belongs on wax. Splatter vinyl, analog source, an album built on weight and texture and the space between notes: this is a record that rewards a turntable, a proper system, and zero distractions. Worth the 200 we pressed.
Recommended if you like: Earthless, Kadavar, Dead Meadow.
