Single Slam – Only Gob Can Judge Me by Bokassa

Norwegian stonerpunk band, Bokassa, have a new single out called Only Gob Can Judge Me. No, that is not a typo. The Trondheim based band fuse hardcore punk with stoner rock to create their unique brand of music, coined as stonerpunk.

I am not familiar with Bokassa at all. Their name has only come to light because of a recent announcement where they are named as one of the support acts to Metallica on next year’s Worldwired 2 tour. They will support Metallica alongside Ghost in a show that is going to be pretty special for a lot of people and too expensive for others. Check out those tour dates below –

On to Bokassa though. Bokassa are a three piece and are relatively new to the scene only releasing their debut full album last year. That was called Divide & Conquer and it made waves. Metal Hammer placed it in the top 11 debuts of 2017. They also have 2 EPs and a collection of singles under their belts including 2015’s EP, War on Everything. Bokassa are Jørn Kaarstad on vocals and guitars. Olav Dowkes is on drums and Bård Linga is on the bass. If you need any more reason on why Bokassa are highly regarded, and why they are on this tour with Metallica, well Lars Ulrich himself has singled them out as his favourite new band.

Love Lars, or hate him (and I personally love him), he doesn’t always get it right with his decisions and judgements. Let’s see if he is right about Bokassa.

So, Only Gob Can Judge Me is just over 3 and a half minutes long and is a good song. A few cymbal crashes start you off before a deep and dirty sludge like riff kicks in. It is catchy, filthy and one to really get heads banging from the off. The vocals come in and you instantly see the hardcore/punk influence. They are delivered in a shouted punk rock style but sit really well on top of the big, bass heavy riff. The guitars drop off leaving the bass chugging along with big booming drum claps and echoed vocals. They come back in with a screech into a catchy as hell section with a little added energy and a melodic hook.

A bit more melody comes in the bridge with the guitar shooting off to so it’s own thing but keeping the overall tone down tuned. We hit up the second verse and you start getting a little depth in the vocals from some backing. More hardcore influence comes in the chorus with a short burst of gang vocals but it all still slots together seamlessly. There is a nice instrumental breakdown where the strength of the riff is showcased with a bone quivering chugging bass. One more vocal section comes in nearing the end. Again the guitar takes this opportunity to deviate a bit and add a few highlighting lines over the top of the song’s core before we end.

Only Gob Can Judge Me is a really strong song. You can see why people are starting to rave about Barkossa and it is probably for good reason. I’ll have to listen to some more before proclaiming them as the next messiah but on this showing, they have a huge future ahead of them. With their own talent, and now the opportunity to show themselves off to the Metallica fanbase – well, they really should go on to much bigger things from here. I am not usually a big lover of stoner styled music but the added punk elements here make it very appealing. Ill be checking out more. You should too.

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Only Gob Can Judge Me is available now at the usual streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. You can, and should, also grab it at the Bokassa’s Bandcamp page. Find out more about the band at their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages by following the links.