Label: One Records
Date: April 2nd, 2020
While Grom Records recently re-released the first two Bombarder albums(read review here), another Serbian label, One records, decided to re-release the third and fourth album. “Crni dani” and “Ko sam ja” were released in the second half of the 90’s on cassette only. There has never been a CD version. To better describe them, we have to go through a history a little bit. In 1991. after Bombarder released their second album “Bez Milosti”, a civil war in Yugoslavia began. Yugoslavia(Serbia+Montenegro) fell under the rigorous UN sanctions and experienced the third-longest period of hyperinflation in world economic history. Neso, vocalist of the band moved from Sarajevo(Bosnia) to Belgrade(Serbia) where he reformed Bombarder with new members. Despite all economic and political issues, he was determined to continue the story of Bombarder.
“Crni dani” was released in 1995. Songs could be divided into two parts: the first part consists of war-inspired songs, while the second part consists of songs “Rakija”, “Simona” and “Thrash symphony”. War inspired lyrics are written by a person that didn’t watch it on TV, but from the person that survived it. The lyrics speak of the horror and pain that war brings, while the guitar riffs perfectly describe the brutality and morbidity of this senseless act. The whole atmosphere on the record is dark, grim…it perfectly describes the conditions under which it was recorder. The rest of the material brings some interesting and some not so interesting parts. For example “Thrash symphony” is an interesting experiment – an instrumental song with Byzantine/Orthodox chanting intro. Something quite unusual for thrash/speed metal bands. “Simona” is a hard-rock inspired song, we could say that it is a continuation of a song “Princeza” from the previous “Bez milosti” album. The weakest point on “Crni dani” is the song “Rakija”. It is a parody of Queen’s classic “We Will Rock You” and in my opinion, it is a completely unnecessary song. Probably the idea was to “light up” this very dark material with a song like this.
Two years later, in 1997 Bombarder published “Ko sam ja”. Unlike its predecessor, this material does not deal with the war but more with social issues. The opening track “Spiritualni ogled” demolish the listener with its ferocious speed. After a furious start, Bombarder is bringing us a couple of mid-tempo songs, while the end of the record is left for tracks with very addictive riffs. “Moć” is definitively the highlight of the album and one of the best songs that Bombarder ever recorded. I just still can’t believe that after all these years, and I’ve been listening to Bombarder for 16 years, this song is still forcing me for headbang. “Ko sam ja” is a very important album because it indicates the direction in which the band will continue to go in the future.
Both CDs have completely new cover artwork and I like them more than the original ones. Also, on both CDs we have 2 re-recorded songs “Propast” and “Moć” recorded in 2018.
I’m very glad that some label finally decided to re-release these two albums and thus enabled us, the fans, to complete our collection, but also to enable younger fans to get acquainted with the work of one of the most important metal bands from this area.
