Within the Midlands punk scene, Spirit Bomb will feature some familiar faces as Phil Merriman and Richard Martin perform with the Liarbilitys and Tony Henderson drums in Vincent and the Onepotts, bass player Dek Drongo however has also been a member of Drongos for Europe since the early eighties – a band who have had a number of releases over the years, which included achieving a wider success in the mainstream UK charts (not that they knew about it!).
So when a copy of “Bridge on Fire” arrived the credentials implied the album would be worth a listen and sure enough it kicks off with some true punk in the track “Problems”, not to be confused with the Sex Pistols punk rock tune of the same name, this is then followed by “Life is Politics” and the first of several catchy number on the record and although lyrically it may not be over complicated the sentiment is of course that we don’t need to succumb to the powers that be.
The vocals on the majority of the release are spouted with the anger you’d expect from such a band with punchy rock n roll guitars and the drumming from Henderson more frantic than that of his other project, however the mid-way point has Phil “Mez” Merriman in an apologetic and reflective mood for “Laurie” whilst the lyrics are slurred in a manner reminiscent of indie rock outfit the Strokes debut album.
The pace picks up again when Spirit Bomb take Merriman/Martin’s collaboration “Birmingham is Bleeding” by the Liarbilitys and make it fit right at home alongside “Change as a Chance” for two tracks that sit back to back with plenty of “Woah, woah, woah’s” in the chorus for that easy punk down the pub sing-a-long.
At times they may keep things relatively simple, but Spirit Bomb are an energy that’s explosive when it goes off and the band sum up “Bridge on Fire” perfectly themselves when they sing “Gonna play some kick ass rock n roll”, as ultimately some kick ass rock n roll is exactly what you get… well that along with a little helping of punk attitude on the side.
