Well as ‘Seduce Me Tonight’, the first track of this gnarly little album, hit me with all the subtlety of being punched by the Anti-Nowhere League’s logo powered by a Celtic Frost riff my first thought was “Midnight”. It’s not a bad place to start comparison wise: Heavy metal at its most basic with lots of d-beat punk chucked into the mix, a twist of Venom style black metal maybe. Shouty vocals and the occasional outbreak of pure heavy metal lead breaks. Dirty heavy metal punk ‘n’ roll.
It really is that simple.
Except of course it isn’t. As I have drunkenly tried to explain to anyone not sober enough to realise I’m trying to use my soapbox to clamber onto my hobby horse, and leg it before I start, this basic rock and roll thing is hard ‘cos there’s no string section or warbling waif to hide behind. Naked song-writing chops are required. Midnight have them. So do Speedwolf. So did Asomvel. Bunker 66? Well on stuff like (She’s Got) Demon Eyes or the Venom meets a cheeky Dio riff ‘Night Demon’ they certainly do. They also know the benefits of the musical ram raid; hit quick and hard and get the fuck out before you know what happened. The longer you hang around the more chance you’ll turn into a road drill noise. In fact Bunker 66 know this better than some of their better known contemporaries I’d say.
There’s a lot to like here; some lovely fluid guitar and bass work like on the closing section of ‘Another Victim’ crops up regularly which shows a level of musical dexterity and subtlety that just is not expected on this kind of album and all the more welcome for it. The guitar tone is gritty perfection and the riffs keep on rolling. The title track has a superb balance between NWOBHM riff and punk spit. They reek of attitude down to the bone. Ok the lead vocals do grate on me in places; I kind of want something a little more dynamic at times to balance the riffs, particularly when the back up vocals and the odd scream show they have it in them. I know, they are trying to keep it basic and dirty but… Ways and means, ways and means. I guess the only other minor bit of nit picking might be that if you want you can play a little bit of spot-where-the-riff-was-inspired-from, but even then mostly you’d be wrong as Bunker 66 are just so entrenched in this stuff they probably sweat Venom and piss Motorhead.
Great, conviction heavy dirty metal punk. Fans of Venom, Discharge, Midnight, Speedwolf et al should head straight down the Bunker 66 ‘cos there’s a Hell of a party going on in there.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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