GAMA BOMB – Citizen Brain

Many Metalheads say that Thrash Metal died in the mid 90s. Gama Bomb’s music and the music of the new league of Thrash bands say the opposite: Thrash Metal took a short break from being Old School in the mid 90s, and since 2000 the break ended and the locking chains were laid down. This release unleashed a burst of violence that was bound to take the world by storm with old, wild and crazy music of earlier times. These Irish bastards from Newry are part of a growing joint force to bring back Thrash Metal to its status of royalty and to defy all the rules. Citizen Brain is the second strike by the band since their first album back in 2005, Survival Of The Fastest. Don’t expect them to be too serious with their artillery of lyrics that surrounds the album, yet get ready for some good, fast, wacky, humorous (and even a bit stupid) tons of fun.

Gama Bomb are one of the most energetic bands from the new wave of Thrash bands; there isn’t even a single song that is mid or slow tempo. Everything is rushing fast as hell; the music is if it were a wild marathon race. If you snooze you lose, but do not worry even for a second — this release will keep you headbanging and moshing until your head falls off onto the ground. Gama is all about Old School Thrash; their music follows similar acts as Exodus, Slayer, Tankard, and Kreator, however in many of their songs, instrumentally and vocally, there is a close proximity to Punk. As many of you probably know, one of Thrash Metal’s ingredients is Punk whose basic role was to provide the fast tempo beats. When you mix Heavy Metal or NWOBHM with the speed of Punk, you get examples like Tankard, Exodus, and Anthrax. Same goes for Gama Bomb: their riffs have a similarity to Punk bands such as Bad Religion, Strung Out, and Pennywise.

In addition, their dominant singer has a mixed vocal pattern of Zetro, ex-Exodus, Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, and Jim Lindberg of Pennywise. To those of you who do not like Punk, there is no cause for alarm. Gama Bomb is delivering the goods with the art of true Old School Thrash Metal and it’s of no consequence if it has joined roots with Punk. The players have a tremendous ability of providing wildly fast Thrash riffs that bring back the good old days of killer solos and a diverse vocal line. If you like Tankard, Anthrax, and Exodus – Gama Bomb is the new generation of these great bands – speed is the weapon and Thrash is the law.

Citizen Brain has many turn ups that will break your head, yet there are some tracks that are similar to others and after spinning this one a lot it’s sometimes hard to remember what song you were listening to. Nevertheless, this album still rules with amazing tracks like: “Zombie Blood Nightmare”, “Evil Voices” – one of the best tracks, “Final Fight” – a song about the amazing 80s video game of street fighting, “Global Warning” – a message for all the environmentalists out there that says Gama Bomb is with you, “Sentenced To Thrash”, “Hell Trucker”, “Thrashoholic” – a true Thrash Metal anthem, “In The Court Of General Zod” – after you hear this one you will want to take a shot at Superman, “Bullet Belt” – the way to be a good Thrasher.

Exciter said: “Thrash, Speed, Burn”, Gama Bomb is doing just the thing, so be a good Metalhead and mosh to their tunes.