{"id":12569,"date":"2013-04-09T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12569"},"modified":"2019-10-02T16:22:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T16:22:05","slug":"album-review-gama-bomb-the-terror-tapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-gama-bomb-the-terror-tapes\/","title":{"rendered":"GAMA BOMB – The Terror Tapes (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAMA BOMB
The Terror Tapes<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAFM (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Gama Bomb are an Irish thrash band who, alongside the likes of Havok, Hatchet, Warbringer, Bonded By Blood and Evile, have spearheaded the thrash revival and taken their brand of moshing metal to the masses.<\/p>\n

After several trials and tribulations since their inception in 2002, Gama Bomb finds itself at a fourth opus which comes four years after their last offering, 2009\u2019s Tales From The Grave In Space<\/em>. The Terror Tapes<\/em> is the first Gama Bomb outing to not feature co-founding member Luke Graham who is replaced by John Roche on guitar who, alongside vocalist Philly Byrne, lead guitarist Domo Dixon, bassist Joe McGuigan and drummer Paul Caffrey, does a sterling job at taking the Gama Bomb sound to the next level.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I\u2019ve never been a big fan of thrash metal that is given a huge dose of humour, and boy do these guys like to inject the comedy. You only have to look at the track titles to see where the band are coming from \u2013 \u2018Beverley Hills Robocop\u2019, \u2018Shitting Yourself To Live\u2019 and \u2018Metal Idiot\u2019 to name just a few \u2013 but while this is very much tongue-in-cheek crossover thrash, it\u2019s still a hearty listen from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

Those unfamiliar with Gama Bomb won\u2019t find anything original amidst the speedy riffs and rampant drums, with all manner of 80s thrash acts influencing the band, whether it\u2019s Overkill \u2013 particularly in Byrne\u2019s vocals, which remind me of a young Bobby \u2018Blitz\u2019 Ellsworth \u2013 or Exodus, in those violent chants and aggressive structures. Even so, when the band do put in the work they can certainly churn out a decent tune. Personal favourites are the hyper thrash workout \u2018We Started The Fire\u2019, with its infectious melody and devilish chug, and the fiery \u2018The Cannibals Are In The Streets (Therefore) All Flesh Must Be Eaten\u2019.<\/p>\n

Gama Bomb are clearly talented musicians who just can\u2019t help but indulge themselves in high levels of buffoonery \u2013 even the fantastic album cover is the work of their long time idol Graham Humphreys, the veteran horror movie poster artist whose work includes The Evil Dead<\/em> and the first five A Nightmare On Elm Street<\/em> films during the 1980s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that Gama Bomb have enough in the locker to establish themselves as serious contenders for the UK thrash throne. After all, what they are doing is nothing new \u2013 80s acts such as Acid Reign and Re-Animator produced similar levels of thrash insanity \u2013 but all the while the revival is on then I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll continue with their zany antics. For similar bouts of zombie-infested, beer-guzzling foolishness then check out the godfathers of the thrash revival, Municipal Waste.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAMA BOMBThe Terror Tapes AFM (2013)Rating: 6\/10 Gama Bomb are an Irish thrash band who, alongside the likes of Havok, Hatchet, Warbringer, Bonded By Blood and Evile, have spearheaded the thrash revival and taken their brand of moshing metal to the masses. After several trials and tribulations since their inception in 2002, Gama Bomb finds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,605],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-gama-bomb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12569"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79632,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569\/revisions\/79632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}