Bombus kick ass. Not “arse” – my preferred anglicised spelling – but “ass”, because this, their third album, is Rainbow Bar & Grill-friendly, hair-flayling, leather-clad riffology. They come from Sweden, not LA, but, legs planted apart, they play head-bangin’ rock’n’roll with a truly enjoyable heft. Their music begs the listener to whack up the volume, run around the room roaring, and jump off the sofa windmilling air guitar. It’s a blast. The Gothenberg foursome fall within the framework of metal but don’t have truck with the ear-frazzling shredding guitars of death metal, nor do they even play ridiculously fast. They are simply heaveeeeeee, in a Seventies biker sense.
Apt musical comparisons fall between Motörhead and Twisted Sister, but with a pop songmanship bridging Nirvana’s melodic grit and Lacuna Coil’s grandiosity. Named after the Latin word for “bumblebee”, they have something about them akin to musically ballsy but not-entirely serious rockers such as Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction, Alabama Thunderpussy and Steel Panther. Their songs, however, circumvent any smirking post-modernism.
The album opens with the catchy “Eyes on the Price” which smashes grunge production into Iron Maiden gallop, and from there on they seldom quit, unafraid to go symphonic metal and choral upon occasion, as on the epic middle section of “Horde of Flies”. A multi-tracked number called “I Call You Over (Hairy Teeth Pt 2)” is particularly special. It’s a pastiche of power balladry, possibly about booty-calling, that suddenly explodes into hard rockin’ life and whose key lyrics are hammered out in a great chorus: “There’s one thing you should know/I set my standards low/I burn the bridges steady as we go.” The title track also brooks no prisoners (“We’ve got no time to wait for the big move”) and the closing terrace anthem, “Get Your Cuts”, ends things on a rowdy high. The whole album snaps by at a pace. Bombus rock hard. They also know how to entertain.
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