Last Updated on February 28, 2023, 8:37 PM | Published: February 28, 2023
For all the immortal love and legendary status of heavy metal progenitors Black Sabbath, people still forget just how groovy they could be.
Genre linchpins like down-tuned guitars, crushing riffs, and apocalyptic motifs can all be traced back to them, but their penchant for body-moving, head-bobbing (not head-banging) jams too often gets ignored by purveyors of modern metal.
But not by BUGNOG.
The heavy-hitting Norman-based duo bar no holds in their ongoing mission to (as they put it) #KeepOklahomaHeavy with their brand of pitch-black doom metal. But they also know how to extract those classic, slippery, surprisingly funky grooves.
Forged by a couple of local scene veterans, the duo have each decided to forgo their given names – and with them, their local band histories – in favor of monikers Bug and Nog.
With their powers combined, they’ve been laying down the doom since 2019, with full-length debut “Chuggernaut” dropping just days before COVID shut down the world in March of 2020.
Whether the result of some pandemic-era extra time on their hands, or just an overall refinement of both their sound and confidence, BUGNOG’s newest effort, “Lummox,” offers fans a tighter, darker, and more adept mashing of metal styles than ever before.
With just four tracks, and running just over 20 minutes, “Lummox” covers a lot of ground, from late-60s proto-metal jams, to 80s-style fist-pumping power-chugging, all the way to modern sludge.
Opener “Entmoot” kicks the door in with a palm-muted machine-gun riff aimed squarely at early Metallica and Slayer, before Nog announces himself in a gutteral growl ripped from the more extreme offerings of the 90s.
And then about two minutes in, the onslaught suddenly just drops away and leaves you with one of those Sabbath-style blues-funk breakdowns simultaneously surprising and somehow perfectly apt.
Speaking of apt, if the “Ent” in “Entmoot” sounds familiar, that’s because it’s referring to the living, talking trees of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” and the meeting with which they, the manifestation of nature itself, decide to go to war against the machines and devastation of industry.
There’s maybe no subject more currently relevant or rife for metal than environmental collapse at the hands of the war machines, and – thanks to Led Zeppelin – no source of inspiration more unexpectedly “rock n roll” than Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
The twists and turns keep coming as the title track stakes its claim to more modern prog-metal, with some great, angular lead riffing beneath the textural screaming, and “Doom This” suddenly replacing the salivating growls with some melodic, full-throated, stoner-rock vocals.
Broken down into all of its various separate styles and elements, “Lummox” could probably function as a kind of audio-tour through the halls of metal history, but taken as the sum of its parts, there’s nothing as showy or self-conscious as that. It never feels like the guys are saying “check out how well we combine styles” or like they’re intentionally trying to trip you up.
“Lummox” just comes across as the sound of a couple friends that love metal and heavy, crushing music of all kinds, and that will do anything they must to keep Oklahoma heavy.
If that’s a priority you share, then you should be reveling in BUGNOG’s sound, whether that sound has you tapping your feet, banging your head, or talking to trees.
“Lummox” by BUGNOG drops on streamers March 15th.
Follow them at facebook.com/bugnogband and on Instagram @bugnogband.
And … This!
OKC-based rapper/producer extraordinaire Josh Sallee just announced a run of local shows presenting his remarkable and personal 2022 album “Flamingo” in its entirety.
Based on Sallee’s real-life experience of returning home to Oklahoma after a confidence-shattering move to Los Angeles, “Flamingo” was one of last year’s standout OK releases, and the official release show at Beer City Music Hall was a smash.
If you weren’t lucky enough to catch that showcase, Sallee is taking “Flamingo Live” all over the Metro through March and April, with spots at Bar Next Door, Ponynoy, and Canna Con, a return to Beer City, and a culmination at this year’s Norman Music Festival.
No word on what guests may be joining in at these shows yet, but let’s just say that Sallee has a pretty deep list of contacts he can call.
Follow Josh Sallee at facebook.com/joshsalleemusic and on Instagram @joshsallee.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
