ADAM BOMB - review

Don't be fooled by first impressions here. Adam himself is a hard-rock hybrid of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, T-Rex's Mark Bolan and Alice Cooper. A sound that many bands can't even dream of, never mind achieve, putting you in mind of the Wildhearts on stage with Marc Bolan, Aerosmith and Zodiac Mindwarp all at once. The songs certainly have a Mindwarp similarity, fun titles but extremely catching, and worth gettin' yer ass on the dancefloor for. How can you resist songs with titles like "DWI on the Info Super Highway", or "Rock Like Fuck"? Easy. You can't! Adam formed a band aged 14, called Tyrant, with singer Geoff Tate, who later went on to form Queensryche, got a guitar lesson from none other than Eddie Van Halen in 1980, shared a house with Jeff Isabelle, later to become Izzy Stradlin of Guns'n'Roses. This and other events led to the formation of Adam Bomb, and they've opened for the likes of Armored Saint and Metallica. You don't have to listen hard to see influences old and new, intentional or not: Red Hot Chilli's, Jane's Addiction, "Epic" era Faith No More on "Anxiety", with bolts of The Rolling Stones, G'n'R and others peppered throughout the 17 tracks you can download from the Adam Bomb website. Songs like "I Want My Heavy Metal" put us in mind of Zodiac Mindwarp's purest (Mindwarp? Pure?). This is music that spans generations - something a fan of EVERY kind of metal can listen to and not feel left out. Stand out tracks from the website are: "I Want My Heavy Metal"; the punky "Rock Like Fuck"; the Deep Purple-esque guitar&bass of "SST" and "I'm On It"; and the statuesque rock power of "DWI on the Info Super Highway" (think The Wildhearts figuring out how to play properly). There's 2 decades worth of history via the website, get yerself a couple hours off and get some old school education!

NoiseMatters rated: (4½/5)