Godzillionaire – Diminishing Returns

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published January 16, 2025 · Updated February 24, 2025

Godzillionaire is a heavy stoner rock band from Lawrence, Kansas. Their prior releases includes their debut EP, 2017’s The Great DEPression, two full albums, 2018’s Small Change, and 2020’s Negative Balance. The current lineup of Godzillionaire includes Mike Dye on bass, synth, and vocals, Mark Hennessy on lead vocals, Cody Romaine on drums, and Ben White on guitar, synth, and vocals. The band has signed to Ripple Music and are set to release their latest album called Diminishing Returns on January 17th 2025.

Diminishing Returns is my first real exposure to the hard rocking band. I did listen to Negative Balance a couple of times for context but I really wanted to put my focus on this one. Godzillionaire (great name, btw) has been making some waves on the internet and I was really interested in hearing what this band was all about. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of Diminishing Returns, in which this review will be published a day before the official release date.

“Drowning All Night” begins the album with a four count stick click and erupts into an excellent blues rhythm. The bass and drums lead the charge with the guitars flourishing accents and subtle feedback to start. Mark Hennessy’s voice is really commanding the song with his excellent soulful vocal delivery. The music has such an elegant progression in its slow escalation as the song moves forward. Each instrument adds a dynamic expansion for what the song needs and allows Hennessy’s singing to really shine. “Boogie Johnson” kicks in next like a hard rocking outlaw hell bent on making an impact. The music is heavy, direct, and driving which allows Hennessy to deliver a more raspy singing approach.

The third track “Spin Up Spin Down” decreases the sheer intensity with mellow and smooth tones. The clean guitars and laid back delivery of the music settles in nicely from the other two tracks. The song has an atmospheric feel about it and the enchanting vocals of Hennessy adds a beautiful charm. Ben White’s fervent guitar leads, the background synth, and the spoken vocals matched with singing, really adds a spiritual and divine handle to the song. “Astrogarden” launches next and it’s a charmer. Godzillionaire has created a luxurious and sophisticated desert rock song with this one! The music has a refined and dashing heavy chug groove about it and the vocals are suave and cultivated perfectly to match. The seven minute track is a sonic expedition that matures into a heavy rocking number midway through. The song explores with ambition and shifts and shapes into a colossal ending from spoken to aggressive vocals and metallic riffing.

The second half of Diminishing Returns begins with “3rd Street Shuffle”. It’s another hard rocker that has a head bobbing groove brought on by the music. The bass and drums start things off with the guitar slithering right in. This is the new era of stoner rock! The soulful vocals pair up well with the jubilant riffing that Godzillionaire is dishing out. The song has such an illustrious and distinguished sound to it that it’s very appealing. “Unsustainable” dials things back down with a mechanical synthesized sound of mellowing proportions. The lush and smooth textured vocals accommodate the sounds beautifully and the song has a mesmerizing feel to it. The band really makes best use for utilizing musical dynamics and fluctuations within their songs. “Common Board, Magic Nail” is composed of another smooth approach of rock, soul, and psych. Diminishing Returns has just the right combination of fuzz rock, atmospheric, and grunge, to really make this a top tier heavy rock album of 2025.

The final track is an eight minute monster called “Shadow Of A Mountain”. The song has an enigmatic sound at its origin and progressively gains momentum as its propulsion to build up increases. The tribal drumming, clean guitar strumming, and emotive vocals are the illustrious elements of the song. They manage to drift in a nice guitar lead that blends in with the track as everything keeps moving along. The gradation of sounds applied are very progressive but subtle. Godzillionaire are a band that has skillfully integrated a wide spectrum of musical styles that connect and secure the whole structure of each song. Diminishing Returns is the kind of record that you want to keep listening to. There is a lot of great music happening here and what a fantastic start of high caliber songs to begin the new year with.