Reviews
Gama Bomb: Tales from the grave in space
16/03/10 || Euthanatos
First of all, I want to give major, major props for Gama Bomb for giving this album away for free. That’s right, in this day and age of artists and wannabes crying about their rights and tits, these little Irish thrashers went ahead and gave you their new album for fucking free. You fucking appreciate that right now, because it’s fucking awesome. Fucking ingrates.
Second of all, I’ll freely admit I’ve been bad-mouthing everyone I was once hanging from the balls in the thrash metal revival scene. Bands like Municipal Waste, who started a fucking trend and were awesome for a while and then turned to shit. Well, maybe turned to shit is a bit strong, but I don’t care, I want good thrash metal, so there.
Well, let me just go right ahead and say that Gama Bomb is NOT among those people I am unpleased with. “Tales From the Grave in Space” is an amazing album, even better than “Citizen Brain”, and I have to say, I’m very happy to be able to acknowledge that. Everything remains lightning fast and desperate, I think these guys must drink themselves literally to shit, destroying their bowels and playing ridiculously fast so they can get the recording over with and run to the bathroom. Whatever the reasons for the despair may be, I love it, and Gama Bomb has not let up one fucking ounce.
I’m also surprised at how their playing has improved. There are some truly wicked solos here, such as in “Last Ninjas Unite”. And even though, as you can tell from that title and other gems like “Slam Anthem” and “Mussolini Mosh”, Gama Bomb remain in the comic category, they haven’t become stale. No, these guys can still talk about zombies and ghosts and pirates and I’ll still be fucking entertained, but that’s what thrash metal does; it’s the same god damn thing over and over again, but it’s so brilliant, we want more. Lastly, I wanna say something here. No, Gama Bomb is not making anything new. But that’s not always necessary, is it? Sometimes something new is absolutely shitty and an abomination. See Brokencyde, for instance. I shiver at the horridness.
Gama Bomb, on the other hand, remind me of my favorite comic of recent days, “Jesus Christ: In The Name of the Gun”, which you can read, also for free here. There’s nothing new about it. A foul-mouthed Jesus that smokes and shoots nazis. We’ve seen similar things before, but I still pissed myself laughing all the same. It’s the spirit, fuckers. That’s what fucking counts, and Gama Bomb, just like Jesus there, have fucking loads of it.
So, thank you, Gama Bomb. Thank you for being awesome, for giving me your album for free. I’m actually going to buy it, just to show you how much I appreciate the gesture. And the music, because it’s the shit. Next beer’s on me.
The cover: The. coolest. fucking. cover. I’ve. seen. in. years.
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Earache
- Website: Gama Bomb MySpace
- Band
- Philly Byrne: vocals
- Joe McGuigan: bass
- Luke Graham: guitars
- Domo Dixon: guitars
- Paul Caffrey: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Slam Anthem
- 02. New Eliminators of Atlantis B.C.
- 03. Three Witches
- 04. Last Ninjas Unite
- 05. Escape From Scarecrow Mountain
- 06. Mussolini Mosh
- 07. We Respect You
- 08. Apocalypse 1997
- 09. Return to Blood Castle
- 10. Polterghost
- 11. Skeletron
- 12. Mummy Invasion
