Arrival

As it's Friday the thirteenth, a brief and snappy review of Bomber's four-track Arrival EP (independently released last year on CD) is called for. Spanning thirteen care-free and non-committal minutes of liberally swinging mid-tempo blues riffs, youthfully gregarious mid-range vocals, as well as warm undercurrents marked by a plump rhythm section which evokes fun, drunken key parties or hot-boxed muscle cars cruising down Sunset Boulevard, Sweden's latest traditionalist beckons by way of auspicious intrigue, notwithstanding cover's spatial artwork (designed by renowned sci-fi novel cover artist Bruce Pennington, the graphic mastermind behind the works of Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert A. Heinlein).

Suggestions aside, the Malmö based heavy 70s rock styled trio immediately brings to mind the raucous, albeit melodic likes of well-worn trailblazers such as Thin Lizzy, Cactus and Blackfoot while also following a similarly optimistic and bopping path as fellow contemporaries such as Norway's Magick Touch and Los Angeles' D & D cherishing Gygax. In fact, front man Anton Sköld is a doppelgänger for the former's vocal duo (HK Rein and Christer Ottesen), starting with the jerkily noodle-some "Come Tomorrow" - which features Joe Perry's signature "extended" power chord shuffle - before concluding with palm-muted foot shuffler, "Nowhere Near The Sun". Although such catchy rhythms are somewhat generic, plentiful, fresh pentatonic leads constitute Bomber's unequivocal highlight as each track is richly laden with wildly combustive, sky bound solos which bring to mind dearly departed guitar gurus Leslie West and Mark Real.

Here's to hoping what an eventual, considerably more developed full-length will bring...