EP Review: Gama Bomb - Necronomicon Automaton
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
With the 2023 album BATS still warm, Newry quintet – and Northern Ireland’s premier thrash outfit – Gama Bomb make a speedy return to the recording arena with Necronomicon Automaton, a thirteen-minute EP comprising of four tracks that didn’t quite make it to the last record, by were just too good to ignore.
From the get-go, John Roche and Domo Dixon’s guitars are on fire; from the rapid machine gun strokes of Nunchucks’! opening salvos, through Intror the Deceiver’s pit-killing riffs to the title track’s unstoppable rampant charge, Gama Bomb are in no way offering up an after-thought with these tunes.
It’s old school thrashing every step of the way and don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself Googling “Eighties high top trainer white” during, or soon after listening to this. Might still only be March, but I’ve already got my Bermuda shorts on.
Joe McGuigan and Decapitated thumper, James Stewart, lay down the solid and robust foundation, while singer Philly Byrne is having a field day hitting those high Halford notes alongside the usual thrash barks.
Necropanzer even manages to leave the trashing to its own devices, adopting a more Power Metal, Sabaton feel for its bombastic outro.
With subjects as diverse as the dangers of nunchucks in the wrong hands and heavy metal loving robots from the Victorian-era, it’s clear Gama Bomb have lost none of that famous Northern Irish humour.
Necronomicon Automaton is four perfectly executed face-ripping, brain-melting party thrash anthems that out Municipal Wastes Municipal Waste. Gama Bomb are out on tour this month with the equally irreverent Raised By Owls, and if you’ve got a ticket for that one, then you’re in for a great night.
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