Initially, there’s a hint of hopelessness about Bokassa’s fantastic fourth album. Its bleak artwork shows a felled ice-giant, with red light pouring from a cracked cranium. Song titles like The Ending Starts Today and Everyone Fails In The End ooze with wry fatalism. Most of all, its title – All Out Of Dreams – feels painfully loaded coming from an outfit who seemed like they had the world at their feet when Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich named them his ‘new favourite band’ in 2018 and invited them on a massive tour the following year, but whose momentum was brutally derailed by COVID. There’s no self-pity here, though. Just massive riffs, dystopian dark humour and a desire to tear it up like there’s (literally) no tomorrow. Garden Of Heathen, for instance – ...
