Gama Bomb at Myspace

Hailing from Northern Ireland and at the forefront of the thrash revival, Gama Bomb have created an exuberant and irrelevant brand of thrash metal that is primarily about generating an atmosphere perfect for brainless fun, good times and any occasion with a large amount of alcohol is involved. The most socio-political they get is on “global warming” that is more a lurid exaggerated tale using climate change in the same way that they use Zombies in other songs; over the top entertainment. Lyrically these guys are Tankard if they were born 15-20 years later with songs about video games as well as the expected alcohol, B Movie and cartoonish violence.

Musically it’s hard to compare them to any other artist as they have a take on thrash that would have been relatively fresh if it had emerged in the late 80’s and on the evidence of this album they are certainly a more talented prospect than Evile, SSS or even Municipal Waste. Crunchy riffs feed into brief but compelling leads, and the solos are tasteful whilst remaining rip-roaring. Lead Vocalist Philly Bryne is able to switch from a nasal punkish snarl to a glass breaking falsetto at a moment notice and despite the jovial nature of the subject matter, he adds a certain edge of intensity to the proceedings. “Citizen Brain” is for me in the top ten thrash releases of this decade. If you like thrash, buy this album.

Manilla Road at Myspace

Manilla Road is one of those bands that’s been around forever, but never managed to break into the mainstream in any way despite releasing some great material. Their first album, Invasion, dates all the way back to 1980. The production is about as rough as one would expect from an album self-released by a band from Kansas, hundreds of miles away from any of the major metal scenes at the time. Mark Shelton’s nasal, high-pitched voice is a bit of an acquired taste. There are also some incredibly cheesy parts, including the silly spoken intro to “Far Side of the Sun,” the terrible, cliche-ridden lyrics to “Cat and Mouse,” and the horrible trainwreck of studio effects that ends what was Side A on the original LP.

Yet for all these sins, there’s quite a bit of talent on display here. Shelton’s soloing is quite good, and the rhythm section is fine, if a bit workmanlike at times. It doesn’t really sound that much like the band’s later work, either musically or lyrically (there are no nods to the work of Lovecraft or Howard, for example). I especially enjoyed the 13-minute album closer, “The Empire,” which is closest to the epic feel that the band strove for on their later material. Invasion isn’t Manilla Road’s best album, but it’s a decent place to start.

Svartsot at myspace

Folk Metal is something you either love or hate. Apart the odd artist such as Agalloch or Hammers of Misfortune it’s usually exuberant, joyous and unashamedly cheesy. It’s an easy recipe to get hideously wrong, in a widdly keyboard smorgasbord and ye olde worlde theme park style charm offensive that certain acts end up just sounding smug and self-referentially ironic in one of those oh so ‘random’ ways that appeals to the same kids who thought the Lostprophets “megalulz” t shirt was the height of hilarity until their friend introduced them to metal hammer magazine last summer.

Svartsot, thank fuck are not one of those bands. There are no keyboards on the recording of ‘Ravnenes Saga’ their debut album, but instead an array of Flutes, Whistles and the Celtic percussion instrument the bodhran all played by at this point now ex member Stewart Lewis (who had to quit due to his wives ill health) which add to the air of authenticity that pervades this album. The guitar riffs have more of a folk influence than those of say Turisas or Korpikplaani, and the folk stylings of Svartsot’s home country of Denmark make a welcome change from the now textbook Finnish style. The cheese is kept at a welcome minimum with the searing death metal vocals and beautiful production job of Jacob Hansen who has worked with Yrkoon and Destruction in the past and is at this moment in time working with reunited Dutch Death Metal legends Pestilence, helping to create a non too serious but in no way at all goofy atmosphere.

With a lot of the similar bands in this genre, you feel they are trying too hard to create a party album, but ‘Ravnenes Saga’ is a rare all purpose folk metal album. You can party, headbang, or relax to this album and with not a comedy cover in sight to make one groan; this is certainly one of the finest folk metal releases of the past two years.