Bone Yard is a retrospective compilation covering the past 20 year career of Adam Bomb. First emerging on the scene in 1985 with the Geffen release ‘Fatal Attraction’ Bomb has continuously toured and recorded in the intervening years working with some of the best talent that the rock world has to offer.

Indeed just a flick through the credits of this album sees contributions from the likes of Steve Stevens, Cliff Williams and Jimmy Crespo, not to mention song writing credits for Michael Monroe. 

The opening salvo of ‘Star Mangled Banner’ & ‘The Beginning Of The End’ are both culled from the 2003 release ‘Third World Roar’ and with political overtones, the latter track is particularly depressive in its feel.  The lyrics & vocal delivery are vitriolic and the interspersed news clips of the 9/11 tragedy drive home the futility of war & terrorism. 

Things get slightly less pessimistic with ‘Anxiety’ a track that has overtones of Gun’s ‘N’ Roses and Aerosmith in its construction and arrangement, however, given that the track was produced  by Jack Douglas, this is hardly surprising.  Next up ‘Shattered Smile’ is the first of two tracks co-written by Bomb & Michael Monroe, the track is a typical sleaze rock romp, but pails in comparison with the second Monroe/Bomb composition ‘Life’s A Bitch & Then You Live’. The opening guitar riff swaggers out of the speakers with an organic groove many more famous artists would love to be able to deliver. The sneering vocals and gang style BV in the chorus simply work and then the simple multi track  guitar solo round the track out perfectly. 

‘Rock Sex City’ tips its head to the Sex Pistols in fine style and then comes ‘SST’ The opening track from the ‘Fatal Attraction’ debut, the song has lost none of its power in the twenty years of so since it was first released and sees Adam Bomb at his very best. ‘I Want My Heavy Metal’ also appears on the debut album and with its bombastic bluster comes across as all young, dumb and full of ***, which I guess is how it was meant to. ‘Shape of The World’ is the final track culled from ‘Fatal Attraction’ and is the least memorable of the songs taken from the album, seeming badly under-produced when compared to the previous numbers. 

‘I’m On It’ and ‘DWI On The Info-Superhighway’ first appeared on Get Animal I & II respectively. Of the two songs, DWI is by the far the superior track. It is an up-tempo belter of a song, again with echoes of early G’n’R. with a rolling bassline and razor sharp guitar riff The lyrics are clever and amusing and of course contain the now staple line ‘You’ve Got Mail’. ‘Pure S.E.X’ & ‘What In The World’ are the opening and closing tracks respectively from the ‘Pure S.E.X’ album. Given the fact that the former track is co-written with one time Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, it is hardly surprising that the track is reminiscent of something the one-time Generation X singer might have recorded. Unfortunately time has not been kind to the track and it now sounds somewhat dated.  

Bone Yard is rounded out with passable covers of the Rolling Stones staple ‘It’s Only Rock And Roll’ and T-Rex’s classic ‘Jeepster’. The songs stay faithful to the originals but really fail to bring anything new to the table. 

As a retrospective look at the musical heritage of Adam Bomb, Bone Yard is a decent introduction to those who previously have no experience with the man and his music. Unfortunately given the long time period over which the songs were recorded and the disparate nature of the styles that Bomb has employed over the years the CD does not hang together as a cohesive record, but rather comes across as exactly what it is, a stop-gap release before any new material can be committed to tape. 

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Track List

Star Mangled Banner
The Beginning Of The End
Anxiety
Shattered Smile
Life’s A Bitch ‘N’ Then You Live
Rock Sex City
SST
I Want My Heavy Metal
Shape Of The World
I’m On It
D.W.I On The Info-Superhighway
Pure S.E.X
What In The World
It’s Only Rock And Roll
Jeepster

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