![Album Review: Godzillionaire - Negative Balance [REISSUE]](https://i0.wp.com/therazorsedge.rocks/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/godzillionaire.webp?resize=678%2C381&ssl=1 "godzillionaire")
Album Review: Godzillionaire - Negative Balance [REISSUE]
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
As someone who still regularly listens to one of his previous bands, Paw, I was intrigued when I first saw that Godzillionaire was fronted by Mark Henessey. This re-issue of their debut 2020 album “Negative Balance”, via Ripple Music, is a reminder of just how stirring Hennessey is as a vocalist, lyricist and frontman.
The band are impressive, with their musicality and composition on display early, with songs such as “Exit the Succubus” and “The Solution is Laughable”. It’s the almost effortless approach to their sound which is impressive, with Michael Dye on bass & synth, making a tight rhythm section with drummer Cody Remaine, as they let Benjamin White rock away to his hearts content on guitar and keyboards.
There’s also a familiarity to their music on times. When listening to “Ballad of the Topeka Gentleman” I was taken back several years, with it’s wailing vocals, full on raucous guitar and a rhythm section to die for. It’s majestic and you can’t help but nod along as you smile like a Cheshire Cat. It’s all that you want in a song and the variety across the album, is something that will impress people who are listening to this for the first time.
![Album Review: Godzillionaire - Negative Balance [REISSUE]](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/65535/55001376131_a12cde55c5_c.jpg?w=678&ssl=1 "Album Review: Godzillionaire - Negative Balance [REISSUE]")
The power of his Hennesey’s voice, one that I remember from Paw’s brilliant first album “Dragline” comes punching through with a vengeance on the excellent “Reciprocating Engines” which is a song of the highest quality. Those gravelly notes, like he’s swigged a jug of cement brings back so many memories, whilst creating new ones simultaneously. The rhythm and tempo are led by an excellent guitar tone from White as the quartet lead the listener on an emotional rollercoaster of a song.
This is quite the ride, as you get moments of melancholy and reflection with songs such a “Smoke” which are stripped down with added vocals from various band members, but on the flip side they really up the ante with the riff fuelled, hard rock edge of “The Song that Left Town & Didn’t Leave a Note”.
This album is “fuelled by a sense of nihilism” as the band lead you on an adventurous escape to an undiscovered place where soulful and powerful vocals are entwined with a dynamic sound to create something corrosive yet melodic. Final songs “64 Palms (Brace for Impact)” and “Exit Aisle Reprise” serve as reminders as to why this album caused such a stir when it was originally released, and I’m sure it will do so once again when people discover how pleasurable it is.
