Live Review: Brainbombs, Earthdom, Tokyo, 31st of October, 2026

Swedish flat-pack noise-rockers BRAINBOMBS finally reached Japan on their first-ever dates here. Earthdom in Shin-Okubo had the dubious honour of hosting the Tokyo show with Merzbow, Ramps and Zenocide preparing the way. A packed house that felt at times half-foreign greeted these emissaries of European one-riff abrasion to Japan's own extreme noise lineage.

"Japanoise" has deep roots, going back to GROUP ONGAKU in the 60s and HIJOKAIDAN the 70s that evolved from punk into chaotic free-noise and destructive performances. Then Masami Akita launched MERZBOW in 1979, pushing beyond guitar feedback into electronic overload.

This certainly wasn't a "Black Ships" moment; Brainbombs were coming up against a strong indigenous tradition of volume, distortion, and sonic confrontation that could stand on its own two feet.

RAMPS opened with skin-shaking noise and shouts. Merzbow—the most prolific and internationally known from the classic Japanoise wave—delivered roughly 40 minutes of body-rattling low-end chaos. Then the laughingly named ZENOCIDE brought their tighter and more confident sound to the stage. Then it was time for Brainbombs.

No banter, no movement from vocalist Peter Raberg, who reminded me of Barney from "The Simpsons" and simply stared the floor down. The band locked into its obsessive single-riff repetition, pressure building. Dan Raberg's trumpet stabs cut through the murk. Pure noise-rock as advertised: STOOGES/ FALL garage punk filtered through Nordic hardcore stubbornness—as brutal as a fjord with a headache and oddly magnetic. "Die You Fuck" hit, being greeted by guttural roars from some in the audience. But others had just come for the merch, which did a brisk trade.

Despite appearances, Brainbombs' riff-obsessed noise-rock had much in common with Merzbow, etc. The shared commitment to overload and contempt of conventional songcraft made the pairing work. The audience got the hypnotic, nasty punishment they had come for—or at least went home with a nice T-shirt.

Colin Liddell
Revenge of Riff Raff
1st November, 2026

Revenge...?

RIFF RAFF was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, it was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-n-Jack-Daniels-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more nerdy and woke publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers... BUT it is also a place for new talent to rise and shine. So, don't be shy! In the words of the immortal Fly, send in your "news, blues, and reviews" - and even interviews if you've got the balls to buttonhole your heroes!