Bombus are a Swedish heavy rock band from Gothenburg, which has been around since 2008 and has released four full length albums so far. Their fifth release Your Blood, their first on Black Lodge Records is the first with new guitar player Johan Meiton and marks a slight shift in sound. Their style has always been based on good old rock n roll, although with loud guitars and vocals sometimes a bit more gruff than you might expect. Now, there’s a fresh outburst of aggression and attack in the guitar department, making these ten new songs hit harder than ever before.
The opening track and first single Killer has a monstrous hook, killer riffs and melody, which grab your immediate attention and don’t let go for nearly four minutes. The same can be said about songs such as Take You Down, Leave And Let Die and Alone, which all possess a tremendous vigor, fiery vocals and a massive wall of sound, putting forward the great melodies. The sonic picture of Your Blood reminded me a lot of Lizzy Borden’s My Midnight Things album from 2018 and just a little bit of Kill Fuck Die by W.A.S.P.– we have the same noise rock aesthetic here, with a metallized edge and a much distorted sound. This approach actually works brilliantly when you have the melodies and the memorable hooks, but the problem is when the actual song is not so good. All of the four songs already mentioned have a hymn-like, stadium-raising quality, which just urges you to press play again and again. However, songs like The One, The Beast and Carmina, are much weaker, exploiting the same sound formula over mediocre riffs and choruses. The final effect with the weaker tracks is that the noisy, fat, distorted sound drowns everything and becomes tiresome and dull.
It’s actually a 50/50 balance between songs which you instantly hum and are real winners against the ones which fail to deliver and serve as fillers. I can absolutely appreciate what Bombus have tried to do with Your Blood and I am sure they will find the right balance and the better songs in the future if they choose to perfect the same formula. It’s true that a good song is a good song and it doesn’t matter if you play it at a maximum volume with the sound distorted from your weak speakers or you just turn it down to be able to decipher the melody. I am trying to say that Bombus have the talent and have the vision. They just need more focus and more above-average songs to truly hit the nail on the head next time.
7/10
Your Blood is out on November 1st via Black Lodge and can be ordered from HERE
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