Bombshel RocksFrom the country that has spawned more shitty metalcore bands than I can count comes Sweden's Bombshell Rocks. This has been available for some time before it's US release on Combat Rock Industry (Nine). This is the bands second full length, and shows them playing a upbeat brand of street punk influenced by bands like Bad Religion, The Clash, Rancid, Operation Ivy, etc,. They do a great job of mixing up upbeat punk songs and darker songs, you have a song like "Move Rhythm City," which is really upbeat and has a good time vibe to it and then you have a track like "Downsize" which has a more dark and gloomy feel to it. You get a nice balance. Likewise with the lyrical content.
I've always wondered how the hell bands from overseas can learn English so damn good. The singer of this band sounds like he came from California or some shit, there's no trace of a Swedish accent, at all. On top of mastering the English language, he can write some good catchy lyrics and guitar lines. The lyrics range from songs about dancing and having a good time ("Move Rhythm City"), an anthem for good friends ("Bloodbrothers"), the US selling guns to foreign countries ("Guns and Democracy"), getting sidetracked by outside forces, ("Blind"), and various other lyrical themes dealing with corrupted politics, downsizing, society issues, etc. My favorite track would be "Golden" which features one of hell of a chorus. This is some good shit, "One man's loss is another man's fortune, grab it while you can, oppurtunity's golden." The lyrical content scores a grade A.
The productions sounds pleasant to my ears. All of the instruments got the proper treatment. The guitar tone is warm and has just the right amount of distortion. The bass tone is immaculate, it pulses away with a more warm well rounded sound rather than going for the more treble driven sound. The drums, sound a little thin but I like how they were mixed into the tracks, not too high or low. The vocals are sandwiched in between the drums and stringed instruments and sound great. The layout isn't anything spectacular but it gets the bands message across. I like the shade of blue used for the majority of the layout. The white logo with the red shadowing looks good too. The front cover depicts a worn tattered city with fighter jets flying over head with a outlining of father and son walking into it. I do wish their was more going on inside the booklet though, it's just to black and white.
Rating: 3.9/5
Songs worthy of replay: Downsize and Golden
Thesis: Good upbeat street punk with great lyrics that have something meaningful to say. It's always nice to see how foreigners feel about the American Gov't. And one thing to note, one thing that has been pissing me off since I started this review is the fact that I can't remember the song that sounds almost identical to "Downsize," well the main verse anyway. If anyone has heard this album and knows what I'm talking about shoot me a email.