UK bands have a habit of lack of imagination sometimes, so thankfully Bomb Factory don’t try and sell themselves on the lazy “Refused-esque” label that gets slapped onto anything remotely “post-punk” these days. That particular genre tag is applied to a whole bunch of bands that, apart from being noisy, haven’t managed to decide what they want to sound like and just sort of “go with it”.
Bomb Factory have managed to dodge that particular bullet with Paul Tipler (80s Matchbox, Idlewild) at the helm, as he’s done a great job at capturing their “paranoia in a broken Britain” thing and forging something cohesive out of the jumble. Unfortunately, lyrically and structurally, the band struggles to break out of a long set mould, and apart from opener Tapes, you could be forgiven for writing the band off as forgettable.
Despite the band’s obvious potential, the final product comes off sounding a bit predictable, especially in terms of the lyrical content. The band’s future efforts would likely be better spent away from hammering home a point and closer to building on the solid musical foundation they have in place.
Tom Aylott