Gama Bomb – Speed Between The Lines album review

Northern Irish thrashers Gama Bomb rustle up more killer riffs on Speed Between The Lines

Gama Bomb – Speed Between The Lines album cover

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Speed Between The Lines

Gama Bomb – Speed Between The Lines album cover

1. Give Me Leather
2. A Hanging
3. 666Teen
4. Bring Out The Monster
5. R.I.P. U
6. Motorgeist
7. Alt-Reich
8. Stay Rotten
9. We R Going 2 Eat U
10. Kurt Russell
11. World Gone To Hell
12. Faceblaster

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They’ve never been the most serious band (although blessedly nowhere near as silly as piratical loons Alestorm), but Northern Ireland’s Gama Bomb have been the UK’s most consistent contributors to the modern thrash revival.

Their sixth album mixes the genre’s chief hallmarks of frantic speed and social commentary with, as you can ascertain from the title, a wry sense of humour, most notable on a song about Kurt Russell. 

Philly Byrne’s vocal histrionics on Rob Halford-worshipping opener Give Me Leather and 666teen underline the band’s knack for fusing infectious riffs with pelting tempos, while the choruses of Stay Rotten, Motorgeist and R.I.P. U will crash straight into the cranium and kick up a fuss before leaving. 

With Domo Dixon’s drums kicking like a bastard there’s barely a chance to catch your breath or to question whether what you’ve just heard is genius or juvenile. And yes, Kurt Russell itself is brilliantly daft.

For Fans Of: Bonded By Blood, Toxic Holocaust, Municipal Waste

Adam Brennan

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.