The Hellacopters
Cream of the Crap! Vol.2

THE REVIEW

Still around the Swedish band The Hellacopters; the most noble representatives of that Hard-Rock-Punk'n'Roll revival so popular on the Scandinavian peninsula at the turn of the nineties and the following decade. The band led by Nicke Andersson, already the first and impetuous drummer of that infernal crew that were the Entombed, remained active from 1994 to 2008. During this considerable period, they released seven full-length albums, all of absolute value, plus an endless number of singles, EPs, splits with other bands; a total and chaotic musical "disorder" that makes it very difficult to purchase some singles, mostly published in a very limited number of copies. They had the brilliant idea to collect all their hard-to-find works in two compilations with an explicit title.

Today I feel like focusing on volume 2, released in 2004. There are twenty-two tracks arranged for over an hour of raw and captivating music. The overflowing ingredients that constitute the sonic framework of the collection are always the same: a sound, an approach to the sound matter, a modus operandi that sinks its twisted roots into the stormy Hard Sound of late sixties Detroit so dear to MC5, Stooges, Kiss, and, crossing the ocean, AC/DC. But that’s not all, because they incorporate into this already powerful mix a damned and outrageous Punk charge that wreaks havoc repeatedly during listening. Zero survivors, for a deafening chaos at full throttle.

They play without technicalities and put forward all their desire to make as much noise as possible: wild, angry, strong, belligerent. Heart and soul with a volume to make you tremble; distortion at full blast and pounding hard in most of the songs. They pay homage to Misfits, Love, Dictators, and finally even Black Sabbath with fierce, crazy, magmatic covers.

The best they give is in the pieces they wrote themselves, particularly in those tremendous bursts put down in not even two minutes. So just put the CD in position, press the Play button to be "flattened" by the seventy seconds of the initial "I Only Got The Shakes"; but I personally award the best track to "A Cross For Cain". I won't write anything else: listen to these barely three minutes and we'll talk again. I'll be waiting for you...DIRTY WOMEN...

Devastated, drunk... devastating The Hellacopters!!!!

Ad Maiora.