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Rating: The news of the death of Robert "Strings" Dahlqvist, who passed away on February 3rd at the age of forty, has gone unnoticed. He was the guitarist for the Hellacopters for ten years, joining the Swedish band in place of the resigning Dregen, born Andreas Tyrone Svensson. A sparse statement confirmed David's departure without specifying the cause of death.
In recent days, I have revisited much of the group's discography, focusing my attention on photos of David in the internal booklets of the albums where he played; I was struck by his gaze, almost always photographed with very serious expressions. The same goes for the images that can be observed online: a detached attitude, very rare smiles, overshadowed by his colleagues. Clothing very much from the seventies, bell-bottom pants, and long blonde hair framing his facial expressions so "dull."
Looking for more information on the guitarist, I read that last year, during the Hellacopters reunion, he did not participate in the concerts at summer festivals as Dregen had returned to his place. I associated this sort of "betrayal" by the former colleagues with his tragic end; I really hope I'm wrong.
I want to remember him with this split album, the Hellacopters in their disorderly discography have released a significant amount of them, which came out in January 2001. Swedes against Finns, as The Flaming Sideburns are originally from Helsinki.
Three tracks each. It starts with the guys led by Nick "Royale" Andersson who opt for three covers. Two from the soulman (!!) Smokey Robinson and one from The Flaming Sideburns themselves. It's the usual (in the most positive sense of the word): take MC5, The Stooges, Motorhead, and Kiss, and you're served a Garage - "Sporc" 'n' Roll that could bring down entire buildings. Terms I've already overused in other reviews on the Swedes; but it's damn true. Listening to the track "Get Ready" is enough to support my writerly proclamations: direct, swift, and terrifyingly compact. Hopefully, Smokey took it well, given how his song was handled!
Back at a thousand miles an hour: it's the Finns' turn, who immediately manage with two of their very Streetwise Rock'n'Roll tracks that smell of burnt gasoline. And to finish off, they return the favor by covering a track by the Hellacopters which appeared in that big album of 1997 "Payin' The Dues": "Psyched Out and Furious" is its title: enough to announce its intense and excessive auditory danger. Like jackhammers.
And as already written, I conclude with a thought on the internal photo showing the ten protagonists of the split amassed in a single smiling and drunken image. Happy and content to show themselves; all except David, always detached from the others and expressionless.
Ad Maiora.
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