Dust off, The Hellacopters have landed.

I’d heard of Entombed, which would give up drummer Nick Royal and it’s roadies to form the almighty Hellacopters, but wasn’t a fan. Death Metal had never been my thing. I’d seen their name in MRR, and I swear that I had thought ‘Cool a band with a horror punk sounding name from Sweden, who is this band The Stooges that they are being compared to?’ it was the mid 90’s, likely ’95 and I didn’t understand that I could order records from overseas by mail. My brother starts e-mailing Jake Starr from the Misfits Bible, he tells us about The Stooges, he tells us about the MC5, he tells us the rock history of our own home town. He tells us to check out the Hellacopters, and we do. A 7” here, a 7” there, honestly, not hooked. They are still raw, noisy, and forming. They quickly smooth out some of the rough edges, enough of the rough edges and Paying the Dues seems like the best record they will ever record. It’s poppier but still with that edge, that wail, that thing, that hook. We meet the band, briefly, at a show in the big D. Three weeks later we are in Stockholm for the first time, and we meet up with Kenny, the bass player for a drink. It’s cool, it’s fun, it’s a little strange. More records follow, Grand Rock, which I don’t get the first time around, it’s the transition to their more soulful rock sound. It’s Kiss, it’s AC/DC, it’s all of that. They wear their influences on their sleeves. The Ramones. The Deadboys. The Misfits. The Dictators. The Stooges. The MC5. Sonics Rendezvous Band. Radio Birdman. It starts to click, and they move into their next record.High Visibility, the best of their records, at least for my money, launches them into rock stardom in Sweden but not the USA. It takes everything that they have learned and melts it into them, or what I think of when I think of them. It’s got soul, it’s got High Energy (and that what I classify them as High Energy Rock and Roll), a dash of punk, a dash of 70’s rock and pop accessibility. This is where the record company drops the ball, the major they are on in Sweden doesn’t want to back them in the state, and fuck it all up. It’s 2000, and the world is ready for something new, or at least newish, something with energy and the Hellacopters could have been it… instead we get… the white stripes. Instead we get their little brother band, The Hives, and The Hellacopters miss what should have been their big chance.Time flows by, they release By The Grace of God, another great record with a lot of potential, and still it goes nowhere in the States. It goes nowhere in the UK, and like: The Soundtrack of our Lives, The Bellrays, Electric Frankenstein, The Flaming Sideburns, Turbonegro, Gluecifer, Adam West, Mazinga, Thee Ultra Bimboos, and a fistful of other great rock bands they seem to either cash it in, or fade back into their little niche.Rock and Roll is Dead. So claims their latest album, it’s an ok record, it’s the work of a band that’s been out there for 10 years and polished, refined and grown. It’s the work of a band that will be covered in what ever version of Ugly Things magazine is around forty years from now. They are still out there. Hovering between the mainstream and the underground. Just above the treetops, held aloft by the patronage of one Little Steven and his underground garage, which, tell me that I am wrong needs to be packaged as a podcast… anyway.Watch the skies, listen for their buzz and wait for the Grandchildren of the Nuggets box set, for they will be one of the stands out bands. Better yet get a jump on rediscovery, pick up Paying the Dues or By the Grace of God and hear it for yourself.