Gama Bomb – The Empire Belfast

I haven’t been to The Empire in Belfast nearly as much as I should have. The last time I went was to see Pigeon and Plum and the grandeur of the interior matched perfectly to the Victorian theme of the night. This time was a little different though… Saturday 17th August saw a Thrash extravaganza presented by Shizznigh Promotions, with Sentient, Zombified, Mental Deficiency (not thrash, but always a good time) and of course, the headlining act, Gama Bomb. Not to mention the fact that our very own Chris ‘DJ Trampcorpse’ Caldwell was DJing in between acts! A very different atmosphere indeed. Doors opened at 8.30pm, with an entry fee of £12.

Sentient were up first at 9.15pm, This was their first gig, but it really didn’t know. A mix of Screamcore with some truely excellent singing made for a good start to the night. Belfast band Zombified came on at 10pm like a heavy metal locomotive, as they growled their way through a powerful set the audience became a sea of wind-milling hair and devil horn hands. There was a slightly worrying moment when the bass amp blew about 20 mins in, perhaps the music was too heavy even for the equipment. Only a few minutes down time and our sound technician for the evening (Dee) was up on stage and had it fixed!

Mental Deficiency took to the stage around 10.45pm with their usual brand of ‘heavy mental’. However there was no morph suit for Mr Majestic this time, who looked almost normal in a red vest and leggings… Mental Def ran through their repertoire of 80’s film inspired songs to a very appreciative audience – it was surprising how much actual dancing there was for a thrash gig (even more surprising was the boy who insisted on doing the Macarena to every song, very metal…). Mental Def finished their 45 minute set with the classic feminist anthem, GHHGHB.

At 11.45pm one of Ireland’s biggest thrash metal bands, Gama Bomb hit the stage. Fresh from Bloodstock and with a simple “What’s the craic, Belfast?”, they were off – they don’t call themselves speed-thrash for nothing… Gama Bomb are fast! Each member of Gama Bomb has hair longer than the last, which can only mean one thing, an awful lot of head-banging. Aside from the science fiction inspired lyrics and super fast riffs, Gama Bomb were more talkative than your usual metal band and reminisced with the audience about their 11 years in the business, right back to their first gig at Warzone. My personal favourite tune of the night was Backwards Bible, off their new album The Terror Tapes (which has some amazing artwork on the cover by horror movie poster artist Graham Humpreys), which sounds a bit Iron Maideny if you ask me (Run to the Hills to be exact!).

All in all, this was a great night for any metal fan, or even any fan of NI music. The Empire was the perfect venue and gave the whole night an intimate and interesting atmosphere.