100% HEAVY / 100% Free / 0% Spam

FRANKENBOK: ‘The Ex-Files Volume 1’

Share This:

November 30

Fair Dinkum Records

Words by Jimmy Glinster

If it only happens once a year, it’s a good year. Luckily, unlike Veal (insert shameless self-promotion here), the mighty Frankenbok have delivered twice this year, and this second time around they’ve delivered a two-for-one. And lucky for me, I’ve been given a chance at a sneak peek.
 
You’re probably wondering what the fuck I’m talking about by now, so let me take some time to explain.

The mighty BOK are about to drop an album of previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions dating back to the original line-up. Not only that, but they are also offering their full live set from the now infamous System of A Down support at The Palace back in 2002 where rumour has it they wiped the floor with them.

Liberty starts with a solid heavy rock riff which when accompanied by the rest of the band gets the album rocking pretty quickly. The quirky vocals remind me somewhat of the band that they are about to blow off the stage later in this album. I don’t know too much about the band back then, apart from seeing them one time with Machine Head at Festival Hall in Brisbane. Oh yeah, that band Slayer was there too, but no one cared then or cares about that now.

Umm yeah, so back to not knowing much about the band back then, there are dual vocals all over the track and I have no idea who is providing the support to the main vocals. Banger of a track!

Do slows things down a bit with its very southern vibes. The good ol’ Bok, doing it 15 years before it was popular. The track at first seems purely instrumental, apart from some spoken word overdubs and short moments of vocals. It almost sounds incomplete in a way, or is it, is it just the way it was meant to be, are they just letting it breathe? Extended intro maybe? Either way, once the vocals join in, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Turtlehead … what a song title, let’s hope it’s not a turd. Nope, not a turd. Heavy and grooving. The drums are thumping through this one and the riffs just keep coming. Heaviest track so far and closest to the Bok I know of these days. It’s safe to say there was no need for a wipe here, this turtle head popped out Teflon coated.

Heavy rolling toms get the Avalanche started, and the song quickly kicked into gear, accompanied by the quirky vocals we hear in the opening track. They soon fuck off a bit though and the screams take over, as do the riffs. It’s like a heavier, nastier version of that band they blew off the stage back in 2002.

We’ll get to that a little later, though.

There are no Apologies necessary here. This previously unreleased album needed to see the light of day. I actually wonder how this would have performed in the market at a time where the elements of these tracks tick many boxes of what was happening at that very moment in heavy music.

Feeling some serious Faith No More vibes with this track, specifically the Mike Patton style vocals. It’s an interesting one!

Damn, this bassline is phat! I’m sure I can, since these tracks are from back in the days of ADIDAS tracksuits and nu-metal. Fuck it, who cares, I said it anyway. Tarkins Moment of Truth is far from Nu-Metal though, it’s fucking heavy! You could slot it into Alternative metal due to the amount of variation through the song with tempo shifts, intensity changes and variations between thrash and groove.

Alright, here it is, the final studio track. This is Something For Kate, the song, not the band, fuck them pussies and their platinum sales. It’s a thrasher, an angry thrasher. I guess someone needed to tell them they sucked, brutally!

Track 8 Monk introduces us to the live part of the album and just like every show ever the opening track is a little rough around the edges, not the band though, they are tight as fuck, but the mix needed some work. This sorts itself out by the time Greetings and Salutations kicks in, and if ya crank up ya system loud enough, you’d think you were there.

Now, I’m not gonna give ya a blow-by-blow of the live tracks because there’s 12 of them, and I’d rather let you experience this like you would a live show by anticipating which song they’ll play next. And also because I’m somewhat of a lazy cunt. What I will tell you is that you get to hear live versions of a few of
the earlier studio tracks and a banger of a cover that I’m sure most of you are familiar with.

Now, did they make Chop Suey of System? I’ll let you be the judge of that one, and maybe someone who was there can one day tell you the story. I can say this though, it’s a banger of a performance which includes a couple of cheeky stabs at the headline act.

Get it into ya!

OUT ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS 30/11/22

Discover more like this on HEAVY:

Our Picks.

Get the HEAVY
Digi-Mags!

Get the HEAVY Digi-Mag in-boxed weekly. 100% HEAVY / 0%SPAM.