Three years ago Atombuzz released a debut album after an astounding 13 years as a band. To say it wasn’t well received here at Punktastic would be an understatement of monumental proportions (go ahead, read the review). So after a relatively swift three years the band returns with ‘Crisis Intervention’, 11 tracks of snot-nosed, 80’s influenced punk rock that still has one foot firmly in the gutter and the other threatening to slip right in afterwards.
If the band has matured since the previous release it’s hard to see on opening duo ‘Chav Scum’ and ‘No Fat Chix’, both of which are thinly disguised playground putdowns on, you guessed it, chavs and fat girls. It’s a truly inauspicious start that mires the album from the off. Fortunately not all of the songs are quite so obtuse. ‘Reprise’ has a little more grown-up sensibility about it and ‘Drafted’ actually focuses on a topic worth discussing (decisions to join the army). It’s safe to say these two songs saved a whole star on the overall rating.
Lyrics aside this isn’t a complete disaster zone of an album. Musically the band never strays too far from its influences. A measure of Buzzcocks is mixed with a taste of The Damned and a hint of Sham 69 giving it a throwback punk edge that is tapped on by elements of Motorhead. ‘S.T.D.’ may or may not be guilty of a little Duran Duran robbing in its ‘Rio‘ sounding chorus. A patchy cover of Black Flag‘s seminal ‘Nervous Breakdown’ closes out the album albeit with a somewhat pirate twist to it. The band blatantly knows what it likes and safely sticks to it.
It’s not big and it’s not clever but it is likely that ‘Crisis Intervention’ marks an improvement, slight but assured. It’s not original and is vaguely noteworthy but for some I’m sure it will pass a few laughable minutes.
Alex