Bombs of Hades - Atomic Temples (2014)

Bombs of Hades continue to eke out their own little corner of crusty, D-beat, Entombed worshiping heaven with their third full-length Atomic Temples. These guys have always had a bit more of an indie, punk/grind feeling to them which didn't always match up with their choice in cover aesthetics...in this case, the ghastly, enigmatic landscape present through the artwork doesn't really precipitate what you can expect from most of the tunes here. A few atmospheric, evil pieces drawn more directly from their Swedish death metal forebears, to be sure, but the rest is grooving, death rock & roll with loads of the expected drum beats and riff choices which don't deviate widely from the typical tropes of this niche.

You might indeed consider this the 'Wolverine Blues' of the Bombs' career, in that they seem to be risking a few more chances with the groovier, chunkier bluesy curvature of riffs like those found in "And Your Flesh Still Burns", which shuffle about with that irreverent swagger the foremost Swedes of the style explored a little TOO deeply on their mid and later 90s output. The guitar tone here is voluptuous, moist and nasty in tandem; kind of like my choice in significant others, only like with those, there is an occasional desire here to thwart my ears from what they're spitting into them, due to the nagging feeling that they're a bit redundant and I've heard it all before. But to these guys' credit, every time a track was about to lose me, then they'd almost balance it off with something more creepy and atmospheric. Example: "Palace of Decay", which opens with these morbid, fuzzy melodies that resonate over the boggy din of the cover. Unfortunately, even that tunes erupts into an all too standard riffing pattern which is just the same d-beat chord accompaniment with a few slightly deviate chord patterns that you've heard 6,000 in this modern wave of old school soundalikes...

Where the Bombs go into straight death/thrash metal picking, like in "Omens" which seems like Slayer or Possessed squeezed through a Stockholm filter, the music becomes more incinerating and exciting in turns and I almost wish they'd release a total fucking tyrant of a death metal record and stop fiddling around in the same Disfear/Discharge/Skitsystem territory that so many of these nowadays Entombed-core bands have trodden to death. Hell, with a little more emphasis on the riff patterns, these guys might even approach a level which could rival Bloodbath or Demonical or any of several other quality bands in a field of so much detritus, but Atomic Temples is only half firing at best, with L-G Petrov-like raving barks and guitar progressions that would only seem fresh to me if I hadn't already been listening to this shit for 24-25 years. There is promise here, that I do not doubt, and fans of Entrails, Feral, Entombed (Clandestine on), or the more rockin' Desultory and Vermin records might wanna take note of this. However, even though they achieve a nice momentum here in the 38 minutes they've allotted, and might seem 'cooler' than a lot of other bands doing the same thing (more attitude and street/cemetery cred), it's still the same thing, and I just didn't find enough to hold my interest for more than a few spins, besides maybe the sexy guitar tone.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.bombsofhades.com/

Bombs of Hades - Carnivores EP (2008)

Bombs of Hades is another band paying some obvious fan service to their Swedish forefathers, but there are subtle hints that they come from a more distinctly crust and hardcore background. They simply slather it in that raunchy-ass death metal distortion we recall from Entombed and Dismember, and thus a lot of the tremolo riff lines here do feel as if they could have been jerked off Left Hand Path, Clandestine or Indecent & Obscene. Hardly archons of originality, and truth be told I've grown exhausted by so many bands borrowing the old aural trope, which I've rambled on about many times before. But, despite this pervasive sense of having 'been there before one too many times', these guys are fairly exciting songwriters who keep the pacing steady and interject a lot of hellish energy into the simple chord progressions, while not shying away from the use of evil melodies and wailing, bluesy mini-leads that helped define Entombed and their peers as they transitioned into the death & roll of the mid-90s.

Basically, if you find yourself itching for more of that Clandestine/Wolverine Blues vibe or you've run out of Disfear records, Carnivores is a respectable scratch... Five tracks, bloody and willing, driven by a juicily distorted pair of rhythm guitars and crashy sounding drums with a lot of tsssshh tssssshhh cymbal to support the varied melodies and solos. Vocally they're a little more brutal than the average band in this field, backing up the central rasp with guttural barks spewing out cult horror. Structurally, the riffs here are nothing quite unexpected, but there's enough internal variation to fuel these 2-3 minute compositions, from the shit-kicking d-beat bridge of "Slaughter the Dead" to the funereal, cemetery swell opening "Necronomicus Kanth (The Hounds of Hell)" with a touch of synthesizer. I think my favorite track was the closer "Coffin" which is just pure old Swedish death metal ass-razing with some eerie trilling leads in the breakdown, but overall the songs are roughly even in quality, so you never find that anything really sticks out from the rest over the 14 minutes of content. But, then, sometimes that's not a good thing...

There are probably a thousand bands now playing with a similar sound, in Sweden, greater Europe, and even in the States. Bombs of Hades have at least been doing it for some time (formed in '02), even though this particular EP (a 2013 Re-issue from 2008) was where they really started to become productive. Carnivores does compare decently to a lot of the stuff coming out five years later, but truthfully they've got some better songs on their intermittent full-length records Chambers of Abominations and The Serpent's Redemption. But if you missed out on a chance to own the original 7" for this, or you just find yourself driven to collect all that walk the path of Entombed/Nihilist, Discharge, Repulsion and Carnage/Dismember, I can't think that you'd hear this Blood Harvest re-release and be disappointed. I got some brief enjoyment from the songs, yet I can't imagine any situation where I wouldn't just prefer the influences themselves. That said, the production is good and dirty, the DIY attitude is obvious, and there aren't any prevalent negatives apart from the sense of over familiarity and redundancy I experience when listening through this style of death metal.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://bombsofhades.com/