Bokassa is a Norwegian rock band from Trondheim founded in 2013 by Jørn Kaarstad, Lars Erik Andreassen and Olav Dowkes.

Originally, the band consisted of Jørn Kaarstad (guitar, vocals), Olav Dowkes (drums) and Lars Erik Andreassen (bass).

In 2024, bass player Inge Morten Gustafsholm toured with the band but announced the end of their collaboration on 24 September 2024.

[9] Two days before the official announcement, someone in Spain drove a truck on which the artwork for the tour was displayed, featuring Metallica, Bokassa and the Swedish band Ghost.

Some people took pictures of the truck and posted them on social media, tagging Bokassa and asking for confirmation that this was real.

In a 2019 interview, Kaarstad expressed his relief that it was not his bandmates or himself who had spilled the beans, and that it had been very hard to keep the news secret.

Five years later, in a 2024 interview, Jørn Kaarstad admitted: “Lars Ulrich basically made our career.”[12] On off days, in between the dates with Metallica, Bokassa played their own headline concerts in clubs.

Fermor-Worrell from Distorted Sound rated the record as 10/10 and wrote in his review: “Crimson Riders isn’t merely just Divide & Conquer 2.0 – it’s a monumental step-up in quality from an already promising band, putting forward a concise yet entirely enjoyable collection of huge, arena-ready anthems.”[13] Sam Law from Kerrang!

However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they only played at Eurosonics in Groningen (Netherlands) and at the Odal MicroRock Festival in Norway.

[15] It received good reviews, with Jani L. from Tuonela Magazine writing: “The new album is an endearingly old-fashioned, cohesive tightrope act of punk singalongs and highly contagious stoner grooves”.

They also went on a UK Headline tour and played in London, Manchester, Southampton, Glasgow, Cardiff and Wolverhampton.

In 2022, they played in Europe and the UK in (co)-headline shows, at festivals such as Paaspop,[18] Download, Tons of Rock, Hellfest, Wacken Open Air, Rockfest, and Full Metal Holiday; and as supports for Judas Priest, Baroness, and Mastodon.

For the first time, Bokassa have guest artists on the album: Lou Koller from Sick of it All and Aaron Beam from Red Fang.

[20] In his review for Distorted Sound, Tim Bolitho-Jones wrote: “even in the grimmer moments, All Out Of Dreams is a delight.”[21] Bokassa plays punk rock/hardcore with stoner riffs and metal, a style they self-labeled as stonerpunk.

Jørn Kaarstad writes most of Bokassa’s music and lyrics and has cited Fu Manchu, Entombed, Slayer, Bad Religion and especially NOFX as his favourite bands and main influences.

[22] Bokassa’s tracks often feature puns (e.g. Walker Texas Danger, Captain Cold One, Blunt Force Karma, Immortal Space Pirate 3 -Too Old for this Sith), which set a lighter tone despite the dark lyrics.

For example, Hereticules (on the album Molotov Rocktail) contains the following words: “I joined a Mormon church to fix up my life.

I went bankrupt and got nine ex-wives.” Careless’ lyrics (on the album Molotov Rocktail) include: “‘Check out this blackened Balkan jazz’.

One example can be found in the track Molotov Rocktail that references Chinese Democracy, Guns N’ Roses’ 2008 studio album.

In a review of Mototov Rocktail, editor Jannik Kleemann wrote: “In ‘Burn It All (PTSDEAD)’ Bokassa sing about how the dream is dead.

[25] Speaking about a Bokassa show in Manchester in 2021, journalist Lamestream Lydia noted: “Their songs are incredibly strong but it’s the band’s stage presence that makes them stand tall, even while the band had had a few, they still played their songs perfectly and established an almost instant connection to the crowd which included various members photobombing pictures taken in the crowd”.

The jury of this prestigious award, comprising fellow Norwegian musicians, stated: “It is on stage that the music really comes into its own.