Album Review: Starbomb – Self-titled Album

If you read any of my Ninja Sex Party reviews, which for the record you can check out by clicking here, here, here, here, here and here then you’ll already be familiar with two members of this band, Dan Avidan (Danny Sexbang) and Brian Wecht (Ninja Brian) respectively but Starbomb adds a third member Arin Hanson (Egoraptor) and together the three internet personalities make up the music/comedy group called Starbomb which was started in 2013. All the members also work together on the Youtube lets play series Game Grumps which you should check out here. This isn’t my only Starbomb album by the way I reviewed their 2014 release ‘Player Select’ and you can check that out here. And keep your eyes peeled because I plan to review their upcoming album ‘The TryForce’ which is scheduled for a March 2019 release. Anyway now that I’ve successfully cross-linked the entire NSP and Starbomb Discography to date, let’s get on with the actual review.

‘Intro’ This intro is very similar to the introductions for the Ninja Sex Party albums, the main difference being that the first voice you here isn’t Dan Avidan but is instead Arin Hanson. Vocally Arin is very different from Dan and even from the intro that’s obvious. You still get to hear Danny’s sweet voice and not hear Ninja Brian’s. This track also references copyright and how they can in ‘fair use’ talk about video game characters they don’t own or have the rights too, but they get that boring bit away quickly so in their own words they can ‘commence the rock’, all around a strong intro that gives a nice flavour of Starbomb before you actually get into the album properly.

‘I Choose You to Die’ is a Pokemon inspired track and instantly it sets itself apart from NSP because where Danny has a higher vocal range and tended towards slower builds with songs, Arin just kinda leaps in and raps through the opening section. I thinking fast paced, and spitting rhymes suits Arin’s voice really well. The entire song is full of funny references and puns relating to the Pokemon franchise. Danny backs up Arin with his softer voice and to be honest they both work off each other really well. This song is a really fast paced opening number and it just kind grabs you and gets you moving, it’s not a sitting about kind of track.

‘Luigi’s Ballad’ This is one of my favourite Starbomb tracks, and where the previous song had started off really hard and fast this one goes another way with it and has a really soft, slow romantic kind of intro. It doesn’t remain that way for long though. The story of the song is that Luigi is professing his love for Princess Peach, and before she can respond they are both interrupted by Mario who rudely intrudes in the conversation to say crude sexual things which reference the Mario universe. The Narrative switches between both those throughout the song, Luigi (voiced by Danny) has parts which are slow and romantic to demonstrate his lovable character and Mario (voiced by Arin) has faster more rap based parts that show off his obviously obnoxious personality. The track overall is really good and it’s one of those tracks that just kinda gets stuck in your head, although you do need to be careful about singing about Mario’s dick aloud. You also hear internet star Rachel Bloom as Princess Peach, and she has the best line in the song, where rather than choose Mario or Luigi to ‘Take her on a moustache ride’ she goes with Toad because his whole body is shaped like a dick.

‘It’s Dangerous to Go Alone’ This sounds a lot more like something NSP would have done, it even opens with a chilled out, funky groove. In this song we get to hear another aspect of Arin’s singing ability as he sings in a smooth sultry voice. This track parodies Legend of Zelda, in particular the early games in which you encounter an old man in a cave who gives you a sword. In Starbomb world though he’s a lot more interested in showing you another type of weapon 😉 Danny plays the creepy old man in the cave, and voices him really well, getting some of the funniest lines in the song. The track also references Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil further hammering in that Starbomb likes to talk about video games, and why not they’re good at it and they get plenty of exposure with all three members of the group also working at Game Grumps. Arin in his character as Link gets increasingly annoyed at the old man (played by Danny) turning up and sexually propositioning him so he eventually calls for an end to the chilled out groove and leaves, and assumably Hyrule burned to a crisp in his absence.

‘Mega Marital Problems’ This starts with Danny doing a really bad European accent (I’d say German but I don’t want to get nailed down too much on the specifics) he’s playing Dr. Wily an antagonist of Mega Man, while Arin plays Mega man and he and his wife are going to him for couples therapy. This track is really good, and talks about Mega Man’s sexual relationship with his wife, Wily recommends he collect weapons and use them to have kinky sex with his wife who claims that Mega Man is too romantic and she just wants to get screwed. Mega man takes the advice and Wily and his wife and collects these weapons, kills his adversary Mega Man Zero and saves his sex life. Wily ends the song by calling Mrs Mega Man a ‘shallow whore’. I like the rap breakdowns in this song in particular and I enjoyed listen to this track more than I’d thought especially since I don’t really know anything about Mega Man.

‘Rap Battle: Ryu vs. Ken’ has Arin take on the role of Ryu and Danny the role of Ken from the popular game Street Fighter, in the song Ken challenges Ryu to the ultimate fight, ‘A rap battle to the death’ because he thinks Ryu is a ‘Fucking Dick’ Ken agrees seemingly unaware of the shade Ryu was throwing at him before the rap battle starts. He starts to pick up on the insults throughout the song and even asks for an apology hurt by the insults thrown at him in the rap battle, most of which reference how unattractive and ill equipped sexually he is. The song ends with Ken saying “Can you lose to me in a rap battle? Shoryuken!” angered by the pun Ryu lets loose a hadouken which triggers Ken’s forfeit line before he is knocked out. I felt this song was lyrically well composed and made reference to its source really well but I just didn’t like it as much as the other tracks on the album.

‘Crasher-Vania’ based in the popular Castlevania series of games and I think perhaps the best song on the album. Unlike the the majority of the previous songs on the album so far Danny arguably takes the lead in this track, He’s certainly the old character left alive at the end of the song. This track has Dracula, played by Arin inviting his best monster buddies over for a Halloween party when in comes Simon Belmont (the main character of Castlevania) played by Danny who systematically kills all of his horrible monster guest, even though the most evil thing they’re doing is twister. As it turns out he’s just jealous  because he isn’t inviting and so he and Dracula bury the hatchet and play twister until on reflex he kills Dracula, although on reflection he does admit he at least won the game by default. I love this song, its so catchy and fun, with a genuinely good beat, and pacing, get to hear both singers really well and Arin’s Dracula voice is top notch.

‘The Book of Nook’ is an Animal Crossing based song, which has Arin voice the character Tom Nook a well known feature of the Animal Crossing games. The musical score for this track is really good and pokes fun at the almost Godfatheresque hold Tom Nook has over the town, using extortion and debt to keep people in his employ and under him. Like a lot of the tracks on this album it’s really fast paced and presented as a rap. I like this track and anyone who likes Animal Crossing will get a giggle out of it.

‘Sonic’s Best Pal’ This has Danny as the Narrator ask some children if they’d like to hear a story about Sonic and Tails only to be told to ‘eat a dick’ he continues on anyway and introduced the two characters, sonic more or less is himself whereas tails is apparently a pcp addicted loser with self esteem problems. The portions of the song where Sonic/The Narrator is talking are happier and calmer whereas all dialogue by Tails, voiced by Arin, are more aggressive and metal sounding. It’s clear that something is wrong with Sonic’s best pal, Sonic tries to fix him by doing some fun little adventures but Tails is obsessed with Whores and he Kills Robotnik with a gun when he shows up. The song ends with the Narrator considering phoning the police, before a gunshot is heard and someone cursing. I like the melding of harsh, discordant sounds with the more mellow it really provided personality to both characters without labouring the point.

‘Regretroid’ is a song referencing/parodying the game series, Metroid where Danny voices Kraid, Arin is both the Narrator and Mother Brain and Emily Hughes a guest star voices Samus. Metroid is another game I don’t know too well but I really loved this song, it’s goofy and flows really well. The song has both Arin and Dan’s characters compliment Samus, and then take it one step too far, talking about her ‘boobies’ and ‘thighs’ she gets rightfully annoyed, even more so when the villain decides not to fight because they found out Samus was a woman, they even claim they didn’t want to fight and instead just wanted to give her some desserts. The track ends with Kraid trying to distract her with puppies only for her to blow him and the puppies up.

‘Kirby’s Adventures in Reamland’ makes references to the Kirby franchise. Unlike other songs on the album which usually have Danny and Arin take on the persona of characters they talk about in the song this one is told from the outside where they sing about Kirby and how good he’d be at oral because of the characters infamous ability to eat anything he lays his eyes on. Probably the rudest song on the album, and also really funny, and god it’s so bloody catchy, usually not a problem but I don’t wanna be thinking about Kirby being fucked anymore than is required.

‘The Simple Plot of Final Fantasy 7’ Another personal favourite on the album. It references the Final Fantasy series, as well as Donkey Kong, Punch Out, Frogger, Dig Dug, Pacman, Qbert and Asteroids. The basic story of the track is that the characters are on a video game talk show called ‘Talking video games’ where they are discussing games with simple plots, some characters summarise their games until it comes to Cloud from Final Fantasy who attempts to lead us through the confusing storyline of his game which even he doesn’t understand 100%. My personal favourite summary was from Pacman. The rhythm of the song reminds me a lot of ‘Its dangerous to go Alone’ and it’s a real strong song, that closes off the album really well. You really have to admire them condensing the Final Fantasy story so well, and it’s made even better by input from the other classic video games who can say their games in one line. Throughout the song Cloud gets more annoyed that he keeps being interrupted until eventually someone blows him up and that’s the end of the song.

‘Outro’ this was a nice and funny little closer which has Danny stop Arin in the middle of what I’m sure was going to be another classic rap to tell him they’ve ran out of time for the album. It does make sure and promise an upcoming album and lets them mess around be enjoy themselves, and honestly it’s adorable.

So that’s what I think about Starbomb’s first album and if you want to get your own copy then you can buy it here on Itunes and if you want to keep up with the latest from Starbomb then check them out on Facebook, Twitter and on their personal website. Also if you want to see the music videos for the various Starbomb tracks as well as behind the scenes stuff then check out their YouTube channel. While I’m talking about their Youtube channel, to celebrate the release of their second Starbomb album which I’ll also be reviewing they released this album for free on Youtube to listen to and you can check that out here if you want to try before you buy so to speak.

First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org/

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