EP Review: Black Bombers – Vol. 4

Black Bombers was originally a term for a form of amphetamine that was popular in the sixties and seventies, it fuelled many bands of the era and should give you an idea of exactly where Birmingham, UK’s Black Bombers are coming from with their latest EP, Vol. 4, a title that is also a nod to Birmingham’s best known musical export, Black Sabbath. If this wasn’t enough throwback for you then Vol. 4 will also be released on ten inch vinyl, a format that saw it’s heyday in the eighties. 

The opening chords of Day After Day confirm everything you’d suspected and hoped, this is raw dirty proto punk that’s recorded live in true garage band style in the band’s lock up. Vol. 4 contains six tracks of scuzzy lo-fi garage punk ‘n roll that ranges from the sinister instrumental Gnarly to the short, frantic and sweet Animals ‘N Cages and the slow burning finale of Hair Of the Dog. The likes of The Stooges, The Saints and The MC5  are present in the DNA of Black Bombers, this might sound like a review of a band that are recycling the past, but I feel that the Black Bombers are just getting back to the roots of punk, and in my book this is no bad thing.

Vol. 4 follows on from the band’s previous releases, the two 7″singles, Crazy and Rush, and their 2016 eponymous full length album, this is a release that carries all the hall marks off the bands that blazed a path for the punk scene. With Vol. 4 the Black Bombers have delivered an EP that carries the sound of a band making the music they love and doing it the way they want to do it, and just as importantly they are doing it damn well.

The Black Bombers can be found of Facebook here

Vol. 4 can be pre-ordered via Easy Action here