Tag Archives: Nuclear Assault

Gama Bomb – Speed Between the Lines Album Review

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Here’s my recent review of the new Gama Bomb album, which appeared on the Ever Metal website.  Reproduced here with permission; enjoy! 

Gama Bomb – Speed Between the Lines

AFM Records

Release date: 12/10/2018

Running time: 35.07

Review by: Alun Jones

8/10

Hello and welcome to Thrash School.  For today’s lesson, you will need:

  • Skin tight jeans (preferably with ripped knees)
  • Faded Acid Reign t-shirt
  • Studded leather belt and 1x studded leather wrist band
  • White hi-top leather Converse
  • Black leather jacket (denim vest over jacket optional)
  • Baseball cap with “NOT” written under the peak

Because today we will be listening to the new album by Gama Bomb, entitled “Speed Between the Lines”.

These merry metallers have an uncanny ability to rewind the cassette of time to a simpler age.  It’s like grunge never happened.  Instead, we get twelve face-lacerating tunes that rush by in uncompromising fashion.  This is thrash metal, kids, buckle up for the ride.

Eighties thrash was often pre-occupied with party bum-out vibes like nuclear destruction.  Apparently, it’s a post-Cold War world though, so these boys don’t wallow in misery for too long.  Not that they don’t have a social conscience: witness the admirable stab at the current political climate in “Alt Reich”.

But they’re just as happy dedicating an ode to Kurt Russell, which is perfectly justified in my opinion.  Kurt is, of course, an icon of twentieth century popular culture.  Not convinced? Go watch The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China and you can thank me later.

Back to the music.  Although diversity isn’t Gama Bomb’s strong point – Master of Puppets this ain’t – the listener is rewarded with a dozen tracks that speed by relentlessly.  The musicianship is amazing, with blitzkrieg lead guitar all over the place.

The occasional change of pace would add some additional colour, but you can’t fault the commitment and enthusiasm of this band.  This album is the full package with cool themes and some of the best song titles I’ve heard in a long time (666teen? Give them an award NOW).  The music is intense and exciting in equal measure, bringing to mind classic Overkill, Anthrax and Nuclear Assault.

So dig out your old Variflex skateboard and ask your big brother’s mate to buy you a two litre bottle of cider from the Co-op.  With Gama Bomb you can party like it’s 1987.  This history lesson is over.

Visit the Ever Metal website here.

Another Random Skateboard Playlist

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Repetitive, moi?

I love lists.  These random playlists serve no purpose other than to remind me of music that’s buried away in my iTunes, waiting to be rediscovered.  One song leads to another; one band creates a ripple effect leading to another needing to be heard again.

I was out on the longboard this time, on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  I didn’t have long, however, before other commitments would tear me away.  Here are a few songs chosen at random by my iPod as the skate soundtrack that day.

  1. King Crimson – “Happy With What You Have to be Happy With”
  2. Senseless Things – “Watching the Pictures Go”
  3. Neck – “The Star of the County Down”
  4. Soul Asylum – “String of Pearls”
  5. Johnny Dowd – “True Love”
  6. Sonic Youth – “Creme Brulee”
  7. Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Christine”
  8. Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Peek-a-Boo”
  9. Nuclear Assault – “Live, Suffer, Die”
  10. Rolling Stones – “19th Nervous Breakdown”
  11. Shirley Bassey – “Reach for the Stars”
  12. Jimmy Eat World – “Cautioners”

Well, two different Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks, from different albums, one after the other.  Most strange.  Great songs, though.

I remember really enjoying the Stones track; the Shirley Bassey number was a bit out of the blue.  But then, random is what this game’s all about.

Till next time, groovers!