BRAINBOMBS
Singles Compilation ‘86 - ‘93
Load Records

Don't let the opening three seconds of free jazz and pretty horns fool you. This album quickly degenerates into this brutal, harsh landscape of guitars getting the shit beat out of them, frightening vocals obscured by layers of distortion and static and lyrics about Jack the Ripper and Satan, and a drumbeat that tries desperately to match your heartbeat then speed it up to dangerous levels. As the album goes on (and the band matures) these songs get more violent and scary and less concerned with being pretty. The music's a fucking panic attack. It's just gorgeous. Apparently, there's a full-length album that came out about the same time as this collection of singles ("Urge to Kill") and damned if I'm not going to try to find it. Holly Day

(Maximum Ink, December 2000)

BRAINBOMBS Urge to Kill (Load, P.O Box 35, Providence, RI 02901. www.loadrecords.com)

Singles Collection (Load)

If you’re one of the two or three people out there who actually read the paper version of Glossolalia in the early 90's you may recall that we wasted some ink on the then- notorious now- forgotten GG Allin. Little did I know that at the same time there was this band from Sweden called Brainbombs who did the loud/ugly/twisted/sick/disturbed thing a million times better than GG ever did. Brainbombs are actually scary and convincing in their, er, vision of vileness and brutality set to the most grating, pounding, compulsive noise ever recorded. Their masterpiece is the debut album Burning Hell (on Blackjack Records, as is the equally great second album Genius and Brutality). Singles Collection features some live versions of a couple of those songs from Burning Hell that make Brainbombs sound like the most ugly, brutal band that ever hit a stage - all of their releases are devoid of names and photos, so who knows what these guys are really about other than that they have very sick minds. Speaking of sick, Singles Collection features the early gem "Anne Frank".I don’t want to come off like Robert Hilburn, but I have to give you a sample line: "I hate-fucked Anne Frank/ Raped her in her little hole/Anne Frank is a whore!" Be sure to book Brainbombs at your little brother’s bar mitzvah!

As for the new release, Urge to Kill, the guys are back in fine form after the disappointing import-only CD Obey. The phenomenally LOUD guitars are back in full force and the lyrics are ugly as hell with vocals to match. My fave is "Down in the Gutter", apparently about doing the deed with a hygienically-challenged street whore: "You’re a real sexy bitch/But you STINK!!!"

Pure poetry...[Ron K]

(http://www.glossolalia.org

BRAINBOMBS
Singles Compilation 1986-1993 (Load, 2000)
Given the U.S. rock community's new interest in all things Stooges-like, the time seems perfect for Sweden's Brainbombs to be dumping a big poop pie over the party. See, Brainbombs also know a few Stooges riffs; only, unlike, say, the Go, Brainbombs use these riffs to enhance a nightmare vision so hideously sociopathic, it makes snuff films seem tame.
     Curiously enough, this singles collection is one of the tamest things Brainbombs have released. Although its 12 tracks treat murder, mutilation, rape and sodomy as reasons to rock out Iggy-style, the disc never hits the psychological nadir of last year's Urge to Kill. Granted, if you haven't experienced Brainbombs before this, you won't find it any easier to accept lyrics like "I am the filth! I am the cum! I am the vomit" (in "Stacy") or "Kill the bitch -- eat her heart!" (in "No Guilt"). Just count your blessings that you haven't heard the really sick stuff on the band's proper albums. As always, the music is tuneless, repetitive and despicable, with guitars pushed beyond overdrive and vocals delivered in the detached tone of a serial killer. The recording values are nil; the mastering job uneven; the lyrics unapologetically stupid... and yet, as with a perfect murder, the overriding sense of purpose is so simple and pure, you can't help but admire it.
(Originally published in Alternative Press)

- Aaron Burgess

(http://antburg.tripod.com/revsb.htm)

BRAINBOMBS "The Singles Collection" (load)
The neccessary singles collection from the Brainbombs, a band any decent moral individual should hate. But defying our own sense of decency, the Brainbombs are an unlikely AQ favorite. These foulmouthed Swedes crank out pummeling variations on the Stooges' "Funhouse" formula of proto punk heaviosity (circa 1970) with drunken jazz flares. For better or for worse, the ultra violent lyrics of misanthropy and misogyny are buried deep with sloppy production.

(http://www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/b15.html)

BRAINBOMBS
SINGLES COLLECTION 1986 - 1993
CD - Load Records, 1999

Skönt, en singelsamling med Sveriges bästa band. Den har funnits ute ett tag nu men är väl värd att köpa om du inte äger singlarna som är med. Dessutom finns det två spår från kassettdemos, vilka visserligen är de svagaste men är man komplettist så är man.

De singlar som är med är "Jack the Ripper Lover", "Anne Frank", b-sidan från "It's a Burning Hell" och "Live in Oslo". Singellåtarna ligger kronologiskt, skivan avslutas med demospåren och en låt från en samlings-7". Det enda jag saknar är "It's a Burning Hell" (7") och "Queen of Necrophiles" (från Enfants Terrible). Dock är alla dessa låtar svaga, så vad fan. Jovisst ja, Chrome-covern som ligger på en sjua med fanzinet King Kong saknas också, men den kan du leva utan, och två nyare singlar men de är båda lättåtkomliga, "That's the Way I like it" (från en split med Anal Babes) och "Macht". Dessa två kan du hitta hos skivbolaget och/eller eBay. Betala inte mycket för dem, de är bra men lätta. Låtmässigt kan man säga att "Jack the Ripper Lover" är mycket slide och lite svag sång, fast ett av deras starkare spår. B-sidan "No End" är lite sisådär, mycket vild trumpet. "Anne Frank" har den mest inkorrekta text jag någonsin hört, tyvärr sjungs det genom en gitarrförstärkare (eller något) men om du vill ha hela texten står den med i fanzinet Alzheimer #2, som också innehåller en intervju och diskografi. "No Guilt" som är på samma sida på singeln, B-sidan är blank, är bättre i sin live-version. Sedan kommer min absoluta favoritutgåva med Brainbombs, "Live in Oslo". De fyra spåren är inspelade i baren på utestället, med en bandspelare. Orimligt distad och bra ljudbild. Sångaren var under spelningen och hälsade på sin bror trumpetaren, därför sjunger ene gitarristen som gör det jävligt argt och bra. Låtarna är "No Guilt", "Wishing a Slow Death", "Stacy" och "It's a Burning Hell". Den sistnämnda startas med introt från "Stairway to Heaven", fast skevt.

De sista spåren är ganska svaga, jag uppskattar mest "Second Coming" (Whitehouse/Come Org-referens?) från en gammal Cold Meat 7"-samling. "Psychout Crash Kid" är väl ok och "I detta Satans rum" är intressant eftersom den är på svenska. "I detta Satans rum, ligger det en kvinna, hon skriker, jag vill ha kuk". Finn spår av det här i den senare "No Place". Plattan får högsta rekommendation!

/ Johan

(Fat Bankroll)