Born of the Bomb

You know, believe it or not, I was a 14 year old kid once. I couldn't get enough of thrash metal, and dove deep to find cool new bands on Spotify - which there were practically dozens, perhaps hundreds of, especially in the neo-thrash scene. Guess how many of those neo-thrash bands I discovered back then I regularly revisit nowadays? Outside of Municipal Waste, Power Trip, Gama Bomb, Havok, Violator, and Traitor... (remember that these were out of probably hundreds of bands I listened to) literally none of them. Lich King was one band I dug back then, but now? Not really into it, to be honest. I'm still a massive thrash fan, don't get me wrong, but Lich King isn't it for me anymore. Born Of The Bomb is not a worthless album, though it's not a particularly memorable one either. Oh well, at least they're not doing a Venom LARP and passing themselves off as a real band. (*cough cough* Interceptor)

We Came To Conquer, Wage Slave, and In The End, Devastation are okay. Not anything to write home about, but not bad. Fan Massacre is also pretty funny, yet these tracks all share a common theme - they're not memorable at all. We Came To Conquer is probably the best of these four, and I think the vocal delivery here is alright. Speaking of, the vocals. Oh my, this is by far the worst part of the record. I cannot take Tom Martin's vocals seriously, it sounds like a boy on the cusp of adolescence whining. Maybe he was trying to do Tony Foresta-style vocals, but did it poorly. The riffs and lyrics both are just recycled thrash tropes almost to the letter, with literally no original spin put onto it. Wage Slave, which seems to be an anti-capitalistic track, is the exception and not the rule. A quick reminder that by the time this album was released in 2012 Lich King had done pretty much the same thing on three previous records, and then one more record after this (though I would argue that The Omniclasm was slightly more risk-taking than Born Of The Bomb). The cover of Agents Of Steel, originally by Agent Steel, isn't bad. However, the rest of the tracks aren't anything special, dragged down by the vocals and the guitar work, while admirable, is derivative. The lyrics aren't much better for the most part, too. Out of these remaining songs, I would actually like to pick out two, Agnosticism and Lich King IV (Born Of The Bomb), which clock in at almost 9 minutes and 8 minutes respectively. Considering that practically every other track is half of that, and the fact that this is a thrash album after all, this was a surprise. Nevertheless, this cannot save a record suffering immensely from the staleness plaguing modern thrash, the excess of generic bands in the genre, and so much more.

Look, I know Lich King has their fans, but I just can't wrap my head around how I, or anyone for that matter, would elect to listen to this when you've got much better thrash metal to throw on. Sodom, Kreator, Protector, Vio-Lence, Dark Angel, Testament, D.R.I, Sadus, Sacrifice, Forbidden, Tankard... I could be listening to these and so many more, and I'd get much more out of any of these bands' discographies than Lich King's. Even within the neo-thrash movement, you've got Vektor, Hatchet, Graveripper, Deathhammer, Enforced, Void, Warbringer - where does Lich King fit on this list? Born Of The Bomb is not a terrible album, but does it leave any lasting impact on the listener?