Adam Bomb – Fatal Attraction
Joe Siegler
- AllMyVinyl #87
- Band: Adam Bomb
- Album Title: Fatal Attraction
- Release Date: ? May 1985
- Date purchased: Unknown
- Location purchased: Unknown
- Color of vinyl: black
- Number of discs: 1
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]
Another one with a backstory, but it’s an odd one.
When my brother was going through our mom’s basement in 2023, he found my old collection of vinyl. Before he shipped it to me, he went through it all, and while I didn’t get an inventory (I wanted to do that when it got here), he did point out a few oddballs. One I’ll cover later on, and there’s this one. When he showed me a picture of my niece holding the vinyl up and severely judging me with the expression on her face. I got to thinking about it, and honestly I could not remember this album at all. Much less buying it. As I’ve had my old collection back in my hands for awhile now, that has not changed. I have ZERO memory of buying this, zero memory of owning it at all. Complete and total mystery to me.
So I started looking into the history of this album to see if perhaps I can glean an idea why I bought it, and that didn’t give me a solid answer, but I did find out a few factoids that possibly contributed. The first one is that one of the singles is called “I Want my Heavy Metal”. That song has AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams playing bass – as well as background vocals. In 1985 when this came out having Cliff from AC/DC on there was a reason why it probably got my attention. One of the two guitarists on the album was Jimmy Crespo, who was in Aerosmith briefly (and played on the underrated Rock & Hard Place album) when Joe Perry was out for a few years. That too would have likely gotten my attention. Beyond that none of the info about the album likely would have been a reason for me to get it, so I’m going with the Cliff Williams connection being the reason I got this – but I’d be lying if I said it was the main reason, because I’m really not sure 40 years later.
Some additional stuff – Adam Bomb himself (real name Adam Brenner) had been around the scene in various capacities, but never in a “big/main guy” part. He formed a band in 1979 with Geoff Tate of Queensryche named Tyrant. He also (unsuccessfully) tried out for Kiss around this time. He shared an apartment with Izzy Stradlin. He was also friends with Tommy Thayer (now of Kiss, then of Black & Blue), who had the idea to call him “Adam Bomb”. So he’s always been around the area, but never a thing of his own. Until now. The Fatal Attraction record was his first “on his own” project.
But still. I can’t remember why I have this! That’s somewhat annoying. Overall, the album is pretty straightforward mid 80’s hair metal. If you were into that, it’s ok. It’s not awful – I’ve heard a lot worse. But it’s not the best thing I’ve ever heard either. I’ll get into a few of the tracks, don’t like this enough to want to break down every single track.
S.S.T. leads off the album and doesn’t have such a bad guitar riff, but there’s an odd sound at the same time I can’t put my finger on . Not even sure how to describe it. It’s also a fairly simplistic riff too, but going simple on the opening track on album 1.. I don’t know. Simple can work – I mean Smoke on the Water is the most simple riff of all time. But this is not in that category. Guitar solo’s pretty good. Seems to be a thing for me lately – I’m more into solos.
All The Young Dudes – Second track of the album is a cover. Given this album came out a couple off years after Quiet Riot did the same thing with the Metal Health album by covering someone else from the last decade, that’s what this felt like to me. It’s an ok cover. The issue I have with this song isn’t really Adam Bomb’s version but the original includes the lyrics “Boogaloo dudes” which means me want to laugh.
I Want my Heavy Metal – Probably the most accessible song on the album – it’s the one with Cliff Williams from AC/DC on bass. Given this was 1985 – This was the time when I was known to buy an entire albums for individual songs. Seems like something I could have done. The song itself isn’t so bad, probably my favorite thing on the album. There’s a music video for it – mostly performance based.
You’ll Never Know – This one is a bit heavier than the songs before this at the start – it has a nice heavy beat but it goes away almost as soon as it starts and the rest of the song was this more mellow piece. Thought I was gonna get a balls out rocker, but then it went away right away leaving me disappointed – wanted the harder riff from the start in the song. Not just as a tease at the start.
Fatal Attraction – This one is more up my alley. 4 min fast song. When I wrote favorite song above about “Heavy Metal”, I forgot about this one. I quite like this track. Actually played it twice. Maybe it’s the tempo/speed of the song, but I really dug this. It doesn’t seem any more musically inventive than anything else on the album – but it works for me. Good track.
Shape of the World – Not sure if this was an official single, but it had a music video too. Has a simple riff that works. The guitar riff here seems to have a depth to it most of the stuff before this on the album doesn’t. Like the sound here. It’s not fast, it’s mid tempo, but overall it works.
Take Me In – This didn’t do anything for me.
Russian Roulette – Well, this isn’t the Accept song of the same name. Song has a couple of gunshots in it – so.. ok? Yeah, pass. Not cuz of the sound effects, song doesn’t do anything for me.
It’s a Bust – This has a great guitar sound – VERY much like this. Shame more of the album wasn’t like this. I wonder if this was more written by Crespo, as I can hear some sounds in the guitar work that remind me of Aerosmith. There’s also a saxophone that makes an appearance here. I like this because there’s a little bit of experimentation. Good guitar work, and I like it overall.
Prime Evil – This one starts off with a darker, more brooding sound than anything else on the album. It’s a slower, heavier paced slog, that actually reminds me of some early Black Sabbath. Quite unlike anything else on the album. Pretty good song, but I could also see why some wouldn’t like it because the main riff repeats a lot – this time it worked for me.
The album ends there. The vinyl I own stops with Prime Evil, but if you look up the album on Youtube, there’s two other tracks “Edge of a Dream” & “All’s Fair in Rock & Roll”. Both are decent – Edge has a harmonica sound that’s a bit unusual for the album and an overall slower (but not slow) blues pace. All’s Fair is the lesser of the two tracks – sounds like most of the rest of the album. Just kind of there, although the guitar solo spot also shares space with a sax solo.
So OK, I lied. I ended up saying something about all the songs. At this point in the project I kind of find it hard not to unless we’re talking live album or greatest hits (or both). I think my brother was looking forward to me writing about this one as I was mercilessly mocked for even OWNING this. Both my brother and my niece gave me shit for having this. Today I listened to the whole thing, so do your worst family back home.
Bottom line – the album is a product of its era, and while there’s a couple of moments that are decent, the bulk of it is forgettable and after I post this to my blog and to social media, Ill put the vinyl away and probably not listen to it again unless someone on the record dies and I want to get it out and commemorate them.
