Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2018
Duration: 41:15
Rating: 3.5/5
Phil Campbell hardly needs a long, drawn-out introduction. After his longtime buddy and Motorhead boss Lemmy Kilmister, together with Philthy Taylor, Würzel and now Eddie Fast Clarke, set about expanding the drinks menu somewhere beyond our reality, up in the heavens (word is they’ve already switched from teabags to whiskey-and-cola) and his other buddy Mikkey Dee landed a gig with Scorpions, the famous Wizzö cooked up a continuation of his career with a brand-new band, where he’s joined by no fewer than three of his sons and the one and only “non-son”, singer Neil Starr.
The very same lineup already stirred things up back in 2016, when that autumn they put out an EP and hit the road on a European tour with Saxon, stopping in Ljubljana at CUK Kino Šiška along the way. Now, with the aptly titled studio debut »Age of Absurdity«, the band is finally laying down a proper foundation on which it can calmly build its discography for the long haul.
On »Age of Absurdity«, Phil Campbell stays Phil Campbell, even in a new musical environment and surrounded by new buddies. The sound itself, meaning the guitar »gear«, the shorter »decorative« passages, the solos and of course the guitar phrasing. All of it together is still pure Phil Campbell. Which means that if Motörhead were still with us, Phil would simply have pitched these new ideas, the ones we now find on »Age of Absurdity«, to Lemmy for the next Motörhead album. Luckily, though, Bastard Sons aren’t Motörhead, and it’s actually interesting that there are two tracks at most on this album that instantly channel the iron rock’n’roll arrogance of the late punk bruisers Motörhead. Those would most likely be the opener Ringleader and, a little later on the album, Gypsy Kiss. The rest of the album is stylistically far from Motörhead and feels like Phil is closing the circle of life with it and heading back to the musical era before Motörhead. So it’s no surprise that the rest of the album can be linked stylistically to elements of NWOBHM, as well as to Phil’s former band Persian Risk. At the same time, it very skillfully cozies up here and there to the erogenous bounce of blues-rock-tinged vistas, but one thing is clear: with this gang of young stallions, Phil Campbell has delivered an album saturated with its own identity. That’s hardly surprising. Phil’s playing style is recognizable, just as the Motörhead era with Phil in the lineup is recognizable.
The album is very organic, sonically very authentic and live-sounding. It has a raw, primal approach, which isn’t so blatantly raw that you’d slap a pedigree of punk »rudimentariness« on it, but it’s at the same time »garage-scuffed« enough and thoroughly »unpretentious« that some of the guitar phrases would easily ignite very convincingly if they were used in the elementary vocabulary of punk. Neil Starr has a distinctive, raspy, piercing, mid-range voice that brings a bit of »macho posturing« into the very vibe of his vocal delivery. A voice tailor-made for the band’s compositions. Phil provides a decisively amplified sound of thick, chunky guitar phrases, and when we bump into his solo excursions, instantly recognizable in style, you can also find a few moments on the album that flirt with southern rock.
The album is consistently good and, to a degree, even fun, if not downright lucid, which goes hand in hand with the inherited component of the late character of the immortal Motörhead. One of the most respected and recognizable Welsh rock guitarists of all time, he stays that way in the post-Motörhead era too. The right address for brewing up seriously convincing, ignition-sprung guitar phrases that, in harmony with Phil’s famous guitar recipe, will thoroughly clean out your ear canals.
Lineup
Neil Starr – vocals
Phil Campbell – guitar
Todd Campbell – guitar
Tyla Campbell – bass
Dane Campbell – drums
Production
Romesh Dodangoda
Tracklist
01. Ringleader
02. Freak Show
03. Skin And Bones
04. Gypsy Kiss
05. Welcome To Hell
06. Dark Days
07. Dropping The Needle
08. Step Into The Fire
09. Get On Your Knees
10. High Rule
11. Into The Dark
