ALBUM REVIEW: We’re The Bastards – Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons

When the untimely end of beloved rock institution MOTÖRHEAD back in 2015 brought about the need for guitarist Phil Campbell to do something new, fans were excited to discover what the veteran musician would come up with. Initially unveiled as the covers band PHIL CAMPBELL’s ALL STARR BAND, this moniker would soon be dropped to become PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS, a new outfit comprised as Phil himself, alongside sons Todd, Dane and Tyla on guitar, drums and bass respectively, and former ATTACK! ATTACK! frontman Neil Starr on vocals.

Releasing a self-titled EP in November 2016, the newly-christened BASTARD SONS would go on to support the likes of GUNS N’ ROSES and SAXON, before releasing their debut album proper, The Age of Absurdity, at the start of 2018 to rave reviews. Now, a little under three years on, the band have regrouped for their long-awaited proper follow-up, recorded in isolation in their native Wales thanks to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe in 2020, and produced in-house by Todd Campbell himself, the final outcome of those sessions is the not-remotely-subtly-titled We’re The Bastards.

For the most part, We’re The Bastards picks up more or less exactly where their previous effort left off. Kicking off with its crunchy title-track, We’re The Bastards sees Starr essentially setting out the band’s entire schtick within the first 45 seconds; bellowing “We love the music loud/Play it louder” atop a thunderous storm of riffs from Phil and Todd. And loud is indeed what they generally provide over the course of the next 50-odd minutes, with an array of thunderous riffs, pounding drums and squealing guitar solos.

Songs like Animals and Hate Machine rattle along with exactly the amount of pace you’d expect from the man who stood alongside Lemmy for so many years, while tracks like Promises Are Poison and Lie To Me showcase a more lumbering but equally effective hard-rock stomp. Destroyed, meanwhile, is perhaps the record’s most outwardly punk moment – clocking in at just over the two minute mark, and seeing the BASTARD SONS at their most snotty and ferocious, it’s a delightful blast of up-to-eleven fun you can’t help but grin at the sheer exuberant joy of.

That’s not to say everything is straight-up “we play rock & roll” heaviness on We’re The Bastards though; Born To Roam adds a twangy, BLACK STONE CHERRY-esque country rock vibe to the band’s usual stomp, while Desert Song ramps that feel up even further with the use of harmonica from Todd, providing an interesting new texture to accompany Starr’s vocals. These deviations, though slight in the grand scheme of the record, certainly help add more to PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS’ melting pot of styles, and indeed keep things from ever becoming stale for what is a rather lengthy album all things considered.

Arguably the biggest stylistic experiment though, comes for the second consecutive PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS album, in the final track. Much in a similar vein to how Dark Days ended The Age of Absurdity in a slower, unexpectedly soulful manner, here the band finish off on the sprawling six-and-a-half-minute epic Waves; eschewing the punkier stylings of previous songs almost entirely for a sparsely-constructed mid-paced stomper that essentially serves to showcase both the versatility of the BASTARD SONS’ musicians, but most prominently Starr’s stunning knack for melody, finally picking up for one last killer riff in the last minute before a gradual fade-out signals the end of the album on a high point.

All in all, We’re The Bastards is yet another slam-dunk for PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS to add to their collective repertoire. The progression and continued improvements from The Age of Absurdity are evident in just about every aspect of this latest effort, with practically every song crying out to be heard as loud as possible in a live setting – whenever that may be possible again.

Rating: 8/10

We’re The Bastards is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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