Written By Kevin McSweeney
A Concert Review of Gama Bomb, with Support from Raised by Owls and Mechanized: The Junction, Plymouth, UK, April 18th 2025.
I have never seen The Junction so full! It was a cold, windy, rain-soaked night on Good Friday throughout the British Isles, but a crowd seemingly the size of the one in Moscow for Metallica in 1991 braved the foul weather to squeeze themselves into the tiny music venue in Plymouth to see Gama Bomb, thrash metal’s most whimsical band, and viral YouTube metal mirth merchants, Raised by Owls, for what was certain to be an evening of moshing and merriment.
Plymouth-based thrash/death metallers Mechanized had the daunting task of opening for these illustrious outfits, and did so admirably, bringing some much-needed seriousness to act as a counterweight for the silliness to come. That is not to say that their set was bereft of its jovial moments. There was the construction of a “viking wall” at one stage, and also a chant of: “Beer! Beer! Beer!” This was orchestrated by the band to introduce the song Alcoholic Alchemy. I’ve heard that Gen Z are consuming much less alcohol than previous generations, so it’s nice to see young people honouring such noble traditions. Closing song, Out of the Womb; Into the Tomb, left everyone in high spirits, though the title might suggest otherwise, and rounded off a highly proficient display of extreme metal with an impressive range of vocal techniques on display from the local lads. They’re on Spotify. Check ‘em out!
Ordinarily, it would be highly unusual for a band to take to the stage to a techno version of George Michael’s Careless Whisper, before launching into a black metal number about unholy activity on the moors that the Bronte sisters once called home, but this is Raised by Owls, so it’s only to be expected. Anyone who has seen the Derbyshire band’s YouTube channel will know they are as notable for their comedy sketches as for their music. So when they follow it up with Strictly Come Danzig – a song about a sexy encounter with the muscular Misfits frontman on a dance floor – the crowd are not only not batting an eye, they are happily responding to the calls from the stage to open up the pit before them.
As entertaining as this all was, it presented me with certain dilemmas – not just how to explain their tribute to Ainsley Harriott, a British celebrity chef prone to innuendo, but also the appearance of Mr Blobby onstage. Mr Blobby is a rotund, pink-and-yellow pseudo kids TV character from the 1990s, only this time his arrival signified the awakening of “…an ancient evil,” as he staggered around the stage with rubber penises in his hands. Frontman Sam Strachan then introduced the band as Cradle of Filth, quipping that: “We’re like a black metal band, only not as funny!” He is as adept at being a stand-up comedian as he is at extreme metal vocals. Next was a tribute to the much-loved Cannibal Corpse frontman George Fisher in the form of Going for a Pint with Corpsegrinder, and that brought us to the middle of the set.
At this point, Strachan donned a gold sequinned jacket as the theme music of classic British game show Bullseye blared out of the PA system. This marked the beginning of the “Mid-Set Game Show”, during which someone dressed as Chris Fehn from Slipknot emerged to present a t-shirt to whichever member of the crowd displayed the best headbanging skills as the band performed the song I Honestly Thought OSDM Was a Sex Thing. They then invited a fan – a gentleman from Derbyshire, funnily enough – to perform death metal vocals for their cover of Napalm Death’s masterclass in brevity, You Suffer, for which he was presented with a “Best Growler” trophy. (Growler is a vulgar British slang term for female genitalia.) Finally, they awarded another t-shirt, during their tribute to Napalm Death’s legendary frontman, Dance Like Barney Greenway, to the audience member who danced most like the titular vocalist. (The dance looks like a jogger being attacked by a swarm of bees, apparently.)
Strachan then ditched the jacket, announcing that he was “…sweating like the drummer from Aborted when he noticed he was trending on Twitter”, and that was the end of the game show. This signalled a return to matters of the utmost seriousness in the form of I’m Sorry I Wore a Dying Fetus T-Shirt to Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party. The video to this song is absolutely hilarious. I urge you to watch it, as many metalheads will have had similar experiences, if not quite to the same extent.
There was a distinct biscuity texture to the remainder of the set, as they were joined onstage by the Cookie Monster. I should perhaps say Bizkity, in fact, as the beloved Sesame Street character donned a red cap and became the Nookie Monster(!) He danced as the band performed their “tribute” to Fred Durst, followed by a cover of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff, to bring their set to a close to roars of laughter and rapturous applause. It was slightly bizarre to hear the song performed with Durst’s whiny rap style replaced with brutal death metal vocals. They urged the crowd to go down on their haunches before springing up for the “give me something to break” bit. At this point, the only stuff I was likely to break were the ligaments in my joints, but it was great fun for those too young to be around at the time of Significant Other.
I’m not entirely convinced by the band’s assertion that they make “awful music for awful people”, even if they did put the statement on a t-shirt. What I will say is that Raised by Owls are ultimately a more ironic, less juvenile, quintessentially British version of Anal Cunt. They manage to combine hilariously funny stage antics with being a serious proposition as a live metal band, which is no mean feat. The gauntlet was well and truly thrown down to the headliners. Gama Bomb needed to be good to have any hope of following this.
Spoiler alert: they were.
The Newry band took to the stage and launched immediately into Slam Anthem, thus initiating a blast of speed and intensity that basically didn’t let up for the following 75-80 minutes. These lads love a bit of frivolity, amd there’s much whimsy to be found in their lyrics and videos, but musically, they don’t fuck around. Thus is old school thrash metal done properly. Philly Byrne, who was resplendent in his camouflage anti-g suit and sporting a fetching moustache, is very much a traditionalist in terms of his vocal style, if not in terms of sartorial splendour. He favours the Rob Halford-style glass-worrying shriek over anything that might be deemed guttural, and if it was rapping you were after, you’d have been at the wrong gig, or at least you were after Raised by Owls were done with the Limp Bizkit cover.
There was much in the way of audience participation, such as forming pyramids with hands for Egyptron, and claps and calls for pints before Thrashoholic, as well as Byrne pouring beer directly into the mouths of thirsty moshers. I am an admirer of his habit of stepping casually off the stage and strolling nonchalantly into the crowd to instigate moshing whenever he senses a lull in the pit, which he did at occasional intervals during the festivities.
This is not to say that there were many such lulls. The crowd was pumped to such an extent that the band’s name was often chanted “U! S! A!”-style between songs. There was even an outbreak of crowd surfing, which is not something I had personally witnessed at that venue before. One unfortunate individual got stuck in the air between songs, “…having such a good time that he’s crowd surfing to nothing”, as Byrne wryly observed.
There were songs about zombies, which is standard thrash fare, though such songs wouldn’t typically be about the movie Death Becomes Her, however, as is the case with Living Deadin Beverly Hills. Prior to that, they performed new song Necronomicon Automaton, challenging members of the audience to say the name without stuttering, which proved to be quite a task. Prior to the song We Respect You, Byrne showed respect to a member of the audience by trying on his battle jacket. It was a thing of beauty, worthy indeed of the utmost respect.
Bring Out the Monster was a highlight of the set for me. It was a recent selection of mine in Metal Lair’s Seven Deadly Songs feature. And the monster was indeed brought out, as the song heralded the onstage arrival of the band’s mascot, Snowy the Gamabombinable Snowman. I presume the costume was donned by the same person who made numerous appearances during the previous set. If so, he earned his corn that night.
One of the most popular calls of the cold, rainy evening came when Byrne promised to take the audience to a place where the sun is always shining prior to launching into Miami Supercops. I have checked with my Floridian editor. It’s sunny 98% of the time there, apparently. This is quite a coincidence, as it’s sunny approximately 2% of the time in Plymouth. Another popular call came when the band urged those who were not buying merch to spend money instead by donating to Unicef for a very important current cause. They got a well-deserved round of applause for that request.
They ended their set with a cover of the Celtic Punk classic If I Should Fall from Grace with God, originally by The Pogues, which did not cause the intensity to drop whatsoever, and Last Ninjas Unite, during which Byrne brandished nunchucks in a very similar manner to the way in which Mr Blobby had waved dildos earlier that evening, and thus Plymouth’s thrashers were sent back out into the street, sweaty and bruised, with ringing ears and big, happy smiles on their faces, which is not the usual reaction to the English rain, I can assure you. Don’t leave it long before you return to Devon, lads. We could certainly do with that trip to Miami.
Raised By Owls Setlist:
Satanists on T’Yorkshire Moors
Strictly Come Danzig
Ainsley Harriott Advises You to Give Your Meat a Good Ol’ Rub
Going for a Pint with Corpsegrinder
I Honestly Thought OSDM Was a Sex Thing
You Suffer (Napalm Death cover)
Dance Like Barney Greenway
I’m Sorry I Wore a Dying Fetus T-Shirt to Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party
The Dark and Twisted Realm in Which Fred Durst Resides
Break Stuff (Limp Bizkit cover)
Raised by Owls lineup:
Lee Deane – Drums
Mark Bainbridge – Guitars
Alex LeGrice – Guitars, Vocals (backing)
Sam Strachan – Vocals
Toby Cope – Bass
Gama Bomb Setlist:
Slam Anthem
Egyptron
Electric Pentacle
666teen
Speed Funeral
Rusted Gold
Give Me Leather
Sea Savage
We Respect You
Necronomicon Automaton
Living Dead in Beverly Hills
Zombie Blood Nightmare
Three Witches
Bring Out The Monster
Thrashoholic
She’s Not my Mother, Todd
Miami Supercops
Terrorscope
If I Should Fall From Grace With God (The Pogues cover)
Last Ninjas Unite
Gama Bomb lineup:
Philly Byrne – Vocals
Domo Dixon – Lead Guitar
John Roche – Rhythm Guitar
Joe McGuigan – Bass
Chris Williams – Drums
Photos By Kevin McSweeney
