James Fogarty is the man behind such projects as Ewigkeit and Old Forest while being a founding member of British black metal madmen The Meads of Asphodel. The Bombs of Enduring Freedom is the man’s most politically inclined project yet and is basically a sample heavy electronic outing with some metal guitar riffing.

Kalashnikovs and Car Bombs is the second release from The Bombs… and while the debut was leaned a bit more towards the electronic, this ep has a fair number of heavy riffs and industrial grooves. The foundation of these songs is in drum n bass and it is all very electronic in nature so I’m not sure how many people this will appeal to but Fogarty has always had an ear for catchy tunes and unexpected samples and this is what makes The Bombs of Enduring Freedom a thoroughly enjoyable experience. There’s also a slight Middle-Eastern touch to most of these songs thanks to samples of what sound like some ethnic folk instruments and in keeping with the themes of the songs.

The songs tend to all have a steady drum n bass background over which Fogarty layers everything from groovy metal riffs, spoken word samples, ethnic instrumentation, cheesy euro pop melodies and what even sounds like the Nightrider theme on Insurgents in Dub. Elsewhere, Baghdad sounds like a more energetic and fearless Lamb while there are plenty of traces of Ewigkeit all over these songs.

There are six songs on Kalashnikovs and Car Bombs and it lasts for a little over twenty minutes so this is pretty much the ideal entry point for a strange but rewarding artist and regardless of your tolerance for electronic music, The Bombs of Enduring Freedom is worth checking out.

Listen to The Bombs of Enduring Freedom

Label - Death To Music Productions

Year of Release - 2009