Review by Chris Van Etten for Bongzilla - Stash (1999)

Despite the name, Bongzilla aren’t a total novelty act. Yes, basically every song is about weed, but the music isn’t hack. The vocals are super nasty, and would probably push this into sludge territory (i.e. Buzzoven or Eyehategod) but the riffs, while totally heavy, aren’t quite dark enough for that. Actually, the vocals would probably sound Black Metal-ish if separated from the music. The production is really sharp and electric, there’s no murkiness here. Everything is pretty distinct, even though there is plenty of distortion. The MVP in my opinion is bassist Weed Dragon (who passed in 2018 according to Metal Archives, RIP).  There’s a lot of room to “jam” around the riffs (one of the best or worst attributes of Stoner Metal, depending on your tastes) and he does it well. Some of the stuff he plays on “American” and “Grog Lady” is fucking sick. The last thing I need to mention is the samples. They definitely date the record to the 90s, but that’s not a bad thing at all. The samples (of course, all about weed) take the place of vocals in a few spots, so they come across almost like audio collages rather than instrumentals. It makes the record a lot more interesting, and it doesn’t sound just like samples for samples’ sake, like a lot of stuff from the era. STASH does drag a bit at the end, but the closing cover of Sabbath’s “Under the Son” is really cool, with a unique tweak of the main guitar riff.