Label: Dallas Records
Release date: 11/22/2022
Production: Simon Jovanović
Album length: 50.21 min
Genre: Alternative Rock / Art Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Bogunov are a five-piece with a musical artistry all their own. This is a band with some serious mileage on the clock, even if their discography doesn’t exactly shout about it. Their debut “More bijesa” (RockLine review), released in 2020, took a full fifteen years to come together. The crew had played together a ton beforehand and matured side by side. So it’s no surprise that Bogunov showed up on their first album with their artistic character (artistically speaking) already sharply polished and defined. A finely chiseled musical profile of their own.
The new album, “Dolazimo u miru”, follows its predecessor after a two-year gap. It no longer brings the same thrill as the debut. It could have gone the other way, but it didn’t. If you’ve heard “More bijesa”, “Dolazimo u miru” won’t surprise you much, if at all. With “Dolazimo u miru”, Bogunov stay dug in on the artistic trenches of their predecessor, which is plenty, since, as said, the band already delivered most of the trademarks on the debut that define the recognizable idiom of their homegrown art-rock orthodoxy. In this zone Bogunov keep the working formula of their very own artistry, deepening and nurturing it. So there are no major departures in the musical expression between the two albums.
“More bijesa” has 11 original tracks with an alternative rock foundation, once again flirting full-dose with pop rhetoric, the carefree triumphant days of Yu-rock melodics, and also inward-looking moments that smell of blues. Once more, keep in mind that the vocal of the one-of-a-kind Ognjen Zeljić sits at the center of attention. The master of poetic preaching is the dominant figure on the new album too. The arrangements and look of the songs occasionally bow to his vocal persona, often to the point where “Dolazimo u miru” starts sounding almost like a singer-songwriter record. On that note, the track Visoki sud marks a landmark turning point of attention on the album. Not far from it is Predivna si, which also leans into a chanson connotation. But we already discovered that on “More bijesa”. A moment like the track Strah od istine is something Bogunov have never tried in their career. The album’s oddball, which in the way it measures out its strokes in building the composition, as well as in the performance, confirms that Bogunov are a crew of excellent musicians breathing together, in tune and in sync, in their own musical recipe, which also proves that the chemistry between the five of them (in the studio) works flawlessly. Dark melancholy! Sadness you could cut with a knife. Yearning mysticism too. The ‘jangle’ guitar sound in melodies unfolding on minor chords, wrapped in the culture of ‘reverb’, even brings in a touch of ‘southern rock’ melodics (Da si tu). The album’s opening stretch rides on the wings of the heavier rock punch of the first three tracks, crowned by the particularly furious, riled-up phrasing of both guitars in the title track.
The production is excellent again. Warm, alive, organic. Refined. The two guitars can combine ‘jangle’ and mildly ‘distorted’ phrasing, which makes superior use of the sonic space in the compositions, giving the songs contrasting breadth and atmospheric depth. With the organic ‘wrap’ of keyboard curtains, which in the arrangements often add organ sounds too, the mood of the tracks hits that much harder. Alongside the expression of a deeply lived-in vocal, the intensifying emotions trapped in the messages of Zemljič’s rich and lavish poetry become all the more stamped-in and gripping. In that sense, “Dolazimo u miru” can be described as a beautifully rounded musical body, adorned at every step with a gripping, theatrical wellspring of seething passions. The album’s opening rock rush is eased in the middle by the light, relaxed and playful O Radosti, which, in its chord progression (from verse back into chorus), confirms the band’s arranging cunning (the song opens with the chorus). A candidate for rotation on the more prominent radio frequencies. In Slovenia and the wider area of the late shared country.
Plainly and without beating around the bush, (energy- and vibe-wise) Bogunov are today’s reflection on the Slovenian music scene of what Lačni Franz were on the Slovenian rock scene in the eighties. That’s definitely a flattering comparison, but it holds water. What’s decisive here is the aforementioned poetic power of Ognjen Zeljić, whom hardly anyone on the Slovenian rock scene today comes close to. In terms of musical expression and poetry alike, this is an album that, just like its predecessor, is tailor-made for the general character of the Slovenian rock audience.
The track Uspavanka za Borisa D., placed at the tail end of the album, achieves an extraordinary expressive effect. We mentioned mysticism earlier. Here the band certainly doesn’t skimp on it. This one gives you goosebumps thanks to its high musical payoff, which gets under your skin and takes over in an instant, developing strictly on minor chords. The additional ten minutes of silence that follow are part of the track. Given its title, you can work out its symbolic meaning yourself. So you can willfully sink into the dreams of Boris Dvornik. In that closing spot, the song could easily have been replaced by Epitaf ljubezni, with its stark contrast between the verse and the musically gripping chorus melody, which brings in a distinctly bittersweet, melancholic grip on the theatrical build-up of bombast.
“Dolazimo u miru” cements Bogunov’s status as a musical attraction with a singular authorial charisma and energy on the Slovenian music scene, one that, in its artistry of expressive depth, touches passion and heartfelt emotion and once again takes over wholeheartedly. This album knocks decisively on the door of the Slovenian music ‘mainstream’. With it, Bogunov march proudly along the ecliptic of their own self-charted musical idiom, which manifests in a beautiful new chapter.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Sakupljač perja (2:23)
2. 98% (4:22)
3. Dolazimo u miru (3:14)
4. Da si tu (3:05)
5. O radosti (2:45)
6. Sanjao sam (4:54)
7. Predivna si (ft. Aaron Hopkins) (2:36)
8. Epitaf ljubezni (3:49)
9. Strah od istine (5:25)
10. Visoki sud (3:31)
11. Uspavanka za Borisa D. (3:18)
Lineup:
Ognjen Zeljić – vocals
Peter Pavičić – guitar
Vladimir Zelić – guitar
Rok Škrlj – bass
Rok Skoliber – drums
Guest musicians:
Tomaž Krstič, Aaron Hopkins, Mira Kotlica, Tanja Tavzelj, Rok Ulaga, Simon Jovanović, Marko Herak, Master Čulk, Mitja Kocjančič
