Sometime in the late 1980s, five Irish lads got hooked on television, B-Movies and thrash metal. A decade later they decided to form a band and the result is Gama Bomb, the latest group of young headbangers to emerge from the underground armed with a clutch of fast-paced songs where double-kick drums hammer relentlessly and guitars squeal like chainsaws.
Cynics may argue that the revitalisation of thrash is already becoming stale and overcrowded, but Gama Bomb have one or two tricks to suggest they've got what it takes to survive; great songs and an all-encompassing sense of fun.
I killed Bob Morton because he made a mistake
After all, it's hard to criticise a band who can release an album where one of the highlights is a forty-second track about Robocop villain Dick Jones. Make no mistake, this is a long way from the sinister sonic nightmares that Slayer trade in, Citizen Brain has more in common with the light-hearted fun that Municipal Waste have been doing so well of late. Where the Virginians deal primarily in partying though, Gama Bomb take in a wider variety of song topics.
For starters, they absolutely love zombies (Zombi Brew and Zombie Blood Nightmare), Jean Claude Van-Damme movies (Time Crime) and those sewer dwelling mutants, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Return Of The Technodrome). That's just the tip of the iceberg though and listeners who play "spot the pop culture reference" will soon find themselves running into double figures.
Now it's time to erase that mistake
It goes without saying then that Citizen Brain isn't a thinking man's record, unless it's his day off. This is knuckle-dragging, cretinous nonsense but it works. All five band members go full pelt into one almighty metal maelstrom, the ensuing chaos disguising the fact that they are secretly locked in a comfortable groove together.
Credit is especially due to vocalist Philly Byrne who manages to keep up with the high speed riffs without his lyrics becoming entirely incomprehensible. Even when his higher-pitched howls get a bit ridiculous, it fits the atmosphere of the music so well that you're more likely to grin inanely than shake your head in despair.
Kneel before Zod!
Rounding things off with a song about Space Invaders and a three minute declaration of war on fake metal poseurs, the album clocks in under the forty minute mark yet still manages to fit a full fifteen songs into the running time. That alone should tell you all you need to know about the style of metal they deal in. This is fast, ferocious party music and while it won't win any trophies at an originality prize awards ceremony, it'll sure make a good after-show party.
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