A couple of years ago I was introduced to Ultrabomb for the first time by being recommended their album Dying to Smile “Chris this is right up your alley, you will love it” and oh how DD was right, turns out that it ended up being one of my albums of the year, roll on a couple of years and Ultrabomb are back with album number three the absolute banger “The Bridges That We Burn” 

Legendary Hüsker Dü bassist Greg Norton has been on fire now for the last few years with three fantastic albums. This time, however, the supergroup has had a few lineup changes, now on lead vocals and guitar is Ryan Smith (Soul Asylum) and the man with the sticks, Derek O’Brien (Social Distortion, Adolescents). For any fan of the alternative punk scene, there is no chance this was going to disappoint and that, my friends, it does not. 

Opening the album, we have a mega riff and thundering bassline into the extremely catchy “Darwin Awards” I’ll be amazed if there’s a better opening song on an album this year. 

Straight away, I know that even though the line-up has changed, the quality hasn’t at all, the production here is very clean and loud, and the band are on fire. “Divert/Deflect” is a pounding beast that will have fists pumping during the chorus. 

Next album is the first single off the album and one of the many album highlights, “Artificial Stars”. This could be taken right out of a Soul Asylum classic, the Melodies are everywhere throughout, it’s nearly impossible to get the guitar licks out of your head on this one. 

My favourite song on the album is just around the corner with the excellent “No Cap” with verses that Dave Pirner would be proud of before exploding into a prime Supersuckers-like chorus at breakneck speed. This will have audiences jumping around like lunatics, no doubt about it. 

With a resume from these three musicians it should be no surprise that this album is so good but yet somehow it does, Greg had been away from the music business for so long to have come back this strongly is no joke, his songwriting here is on top top form, Ryan really shines here as well as his voice is so infectious with guitar harmonies all over the place and Derek keeps everything so tight, fantastic stuff. 

We’re on the flip side of the album now and we get another few album highlights the absolute brilliant “Checked Out” which boasts a anthemic chorus followed with a stunning guitar solo and then we go straight into a pounding bassline from Greg in the equally fantastic “Look Forward In Anger” another one that will get fans off their feet around venues (hopefully in the UK as well please).

We’re coming close to the end now, and we are given the smile-raising “BSS” which stands for Bull Shit Song, which had me grinning from ear to ear, and to close out the album, we have the brutal “Mosquito Crucifixion” which is a monster of a song with a huge riff throughout to end a brilliant album on a massive high note!!!

There we have it, Ultrabomb album #3 ‘The Bridges That We Burn’ in the bag, it’s safe to say it will be high up on my end of year list, give it a listen and make sure to buy it!!! 

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Author: Christian Davies