Godzillionaire

Article By: Leanne Ridgeway

GODZILLIONAIRE is a Lawrence, Kansas band that many may not yet be familiar with. You should be and you will be if I have anything to say about it. Their latest album ‘Negative Balance‘ is the aural sanctuary I’ve been waiting 20 years for someone to build, although I was unaware of my need for it until I listened to it. After repeated listening, I find myself entranced and compelled.

Released April 3rd, 2020, ‘Negative Balance‘ in full is a 14 song, 54-minute love story. What that love means is up for interpretation, but it is nearly an hour of enchantingly heavy and light moments blended into thoroughly encompassing storytelling. As told with the mind-wrenching smoothness of a truly turbulent heart, there is a genre-blending display of love for earth, wind, water, and creatures human or otherwise, rendered with enough fire to set them all ablaze and erase any assumptions you could make about this album. GODZILLIONAIRE is “Kansas as fuck”. For my own interpretation, I firmly agree with them.

Allow me to backtrack… some 20 years ago I moved cross-country on a solo road trip (NY to CA), with 52 hours of driving done in 2.5 days. This adventurous life move was exhilarating on its own, but there is indeed a reason for my telling it. Certain aspects of that trek are vivid and forever burned into my memory as transformative.

At the tail end of a 17-hour driving stint, my pinnacle of awakeness was reached. My speeding along the highway after what seemed like an Oz level of poppy-field eternity, through endless miles of swaying sunflowers stretched across flat fields to both North and South horizon lines, something stopped my lead foot in Lawrence, Kansas. Yet, those mind-dazing sunflowers will never die for me. A dry world with wide-open sky governing not-so-subtle grunge masked by a deafening golden distraction, vaguely threatening in its oddly mystifying beauty. Kansas as fuck.

There may be a familiar vocal tone to the GODZILLIONAIRE storytelling in ‘Negative Balance‘, as well as their prior releases (2017’s ‘the great dEPression‘ and 2018’s ‘Small Change‘), as it is Mark Hennessy who croons and howls into your ears. Mark is formerly (and occasionally still) vocalist and poet of PAW, one of my favorite bands to have ever existed. However, my bias is hereby relaxed, as while born from the same landscape, GODZILLIONAIRE most certainly is a different monster.
With Mr. Hennessy in the primary vocals and wordsmithing role, the band rounds out with Michael Dye on bass/low synth, Cody Romaine on drums and percussion, and Ben White on guitar and keyboards. Starting off with a recorded phone message, the introduction to ‘Negative Balance‘ is already setting the tone for a brewing storm before leading into the musical start with the album theme “Exit The Succubus / Bankrupt, Naked, & Void.” A slow, smooth grooving rhythm keeps hold over the first couple of tense verses and choruses until it explodes with an abundance of tone and heat.

“The Solution Is Laughable” is a churning rocker with steady waves of ironic despondency amidst a crushing low-end resonance. Track four, “Ballad Of The Topeka Gentleman“, may be my top repeater thus far (video below). It’s a barnburner full of head swaying rage blasting out from every direction, with vocals both wailing and nearly whispered, guitar ripping in sync with the ever-seething drums and bass. This is one that causes that sudden realization halfway through the song that your eyes have rolled back in your head and you’re just moving in time to it, smiling all the while. These gents write some mentally ravishing songs. Goddamn.

‘Negative Balance‘ isn’t simply a heavy rock or nostalgic nod of grunge rock, nor is it possible to lump it into one or two categories. It hits the mark there, for sure, but once you think you’re locked into a box, they pull a lever and give you a soothing ballad-esque moment, or a doomed out disengagement from reality to throw your metalhead out the window, then toss in a southern lullaby before sneaking off with an alt-rock kick in the teeth.

But wait, there’s fucking more… Kansas dirty sweet, but not quite desert rock climbing, building up to some of the sexiest psalms this side of an abandoned, deconsecrated church. Then let’s augment this opus with a bafflingly beautiful piano motif leading the “Exit Aisle Reprise” to melodically liberate your brain from your skull.


With all songs written by GODZILLIONAIRE (except “Exit Aisle Reprise“, written by Ben White, Mark Hennessy, Ashley Zeigenbien), ‘Negative Balance‘ was recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios in Shawnee, KS, and Ben White at Bubba Castro Studios in Lawrence, KS. Mastering by Slade Templeton at Influx Studios.

There are several ways to buy ‘Negative Balance‘ through the band’s website for CDs, plus various outlets for digital download and streaming, like Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. They also have various singles on video through YouTube, two of which – “Ballad Of The Topeka Gentleman” and “64 Palms” – are streaming below.

I’m personally hoping for a future vinyl record option, so someone somewhere needs to set up a vinyl pressing and distribution with this band, or I might just be forced to start a damned label and do it myself. - Riff Relevent

Nouveau groupe de l’ex-PAW et vénéré Mark Hennessy, Godzillionaire sort avec ce Negative balance son nouvel opus, et pas des moindres. Bien entouré, l’homme à la voix intacte depuis le fabuleux Dragline de son combo d’origine s’y adonne, avec de fiables acolytes, à un rock qui flirte avec les 90’s. Tantôt fervent et enragé, riffeur et remonté, parfois mélancolique, ou les 2 réunis sur un seul et même morceau (Symphony for Reciprocating Engines (Love Theme from « Negative Balance », qui nous réjouit sur plus de 7 minutes), le disque ne recense en effet que du relevé. Phone Call Intro: Departure + Exit the Succubus/Bankrupt, Naked, & Void a pour mission de sonner la charge; il monte superbement en puissance, un brin psyché, atmosphérique mais cadencé. Henessy y fait merveille, des choeurs enjôleurs lui répondent. Ca explose, le feu grungy-métal, ou heavy rock, envahit les alentours. Premier tir nourri, suivi d’une livrée leste, qui m’évoque Soundgarden, avec The Solution Is Laughable. Chants une fois encore frappants, son lourd et massif et attaque instrumentale bourrue font du dit titre un second jet abouti. Ballad of the Topeka Gentleman se pose alors en standard en phase, à l’instar du reste, avec les 90’s. Chez Godzillionaire, on charge avec l’assurance de ceux qui ont de la route, on met du torturé dans l’ouvrage, on retient puis on lâche la bride. Ca donne de belles fulgurances, des plages accomplies et qui s’enchaînent sans provoquer le décrochage. Ghost déroule d’ailleurs en affichant cette sûreté, ce petit plus mélodique, aussi, de nature à créditer plus encore ce Negative balance qui penche pour sa part du côté du positif. On n’en attendait pas moins mais force est de le constater; Hennessy, dans tout ce qu’il entreprend, est à son avantage.

Derrière, les complices ferraillent juste. La puissance d’ Emergency Weather Update + Never Say Goodbye as a Warning, ses guitares massives, ne me contrediront pas. Les fondations tiennent; on peut taper sur les murs, la baraque est en place. Des envoles brèves mais pertinentes prennent place. Avec Smoke on est presque, même, dans un registre pop. Sensible, doucereux mais alerte, et bien serti. Le malin s’évertuera à guetter le faux-pas. Il s’y fatiguera, il n’y a rien ici qui puisse être rejeté.
The Song that Left Town & Didn’t Leave a Note, mordant, entre grunge et rock teigneux, pose le pied sur le barreau du haut. Godzillionaire joue de plus bien, développe des idées décisives, simples et d’un apport audible. Il a de plus la bonté de mettre l’album en disposition, dans son intégralité, sur sa chaîne Youtube, ce qui m’offre la possibilité d’en vanter aujourd’hui les nombreux mérites. Ceux-ci trouvant en The Song that Left Town & Didn’t Leave a Note, direct et sans bifurcations, une pierre bien cimentée de plus. Comme dit plus haut, c’est du solide que bâtissent Mark Hennessy (words/dreams/wails/hot croons, dye), Michael Dye (bass/lo synth/smooth coos), Cody Romaine (drums/percussums/fiery howls), et Ben White (guitar/keys/orchestrizals/warm yodels). A 4 et en rangs serrés, les mecs du Kansas ne sont jamais à la ramasse. Ils disposent en outre de compositions lestes, riches en riffs de choc, et ont le bon goût d’inclure dans leur Negative balance une louchée de titres plus enlevés.
Curley’s Wife (OK the Scene is Set), sur la fin et après que notre appétit se soit amplement satisfait, le prouve. Entre « lestitude », donc, et chaos tenu, songerie de la voix, incrustes soyeuses, il prend même des atours psyché. L’heure des adieux est arrivée, mais la séparation -très temporaires- se fait au son d’un 64 Palms (Brace for Impact) + Exit Aisle Reprise aux premiers instants chatoyants. Soudainement, on explose et passé l’embardée, on est dans un splendide mid-tempo mi-doux/mi-rageur. C’est un piano lyrique qui met définitivement fin à l’affaire, rondement expédiée. Godzillionaire sort un disque largement à la hauteur d’espérances forcément élevées, estimable quelle qu’en soit la teneur. - Muzzart

Godzillionaire makes Negative Balance an album worth the wait... Guitarist Ben White writes riffs which will lodge in your head for days, while bassist Michael Dye and drummer Cody Romaine know how to make this music groove... As it all comes to an end, you kind of feel like Hennessy sings — 'I ate the heart of a hurricane, come close and feel it descend.' No kidding, man."

- Nick Spacek, The Pitch - The Pitch