By Jim Rowland
Sweden’s finest garage rockers The Hellacopters made a very welcome return in 2022 with the rather fine ‘Eyes Of Oblivion’, their first new album since they originally disbanded back in 2008. Now they pick up where that album left off with ‘Overdriver’.
One of the great things about The Hellacopters is that they have never needed to stray too far from the tried and trusted Hellacopters formula that served them so well on albums like ‘Payin’ the Dues’, ‘Grande Rock’ and ‘High Visibility’ during their original tenure in the late 1990s and early 2000s. When they returned in 2022 with ‘Eyes Of Oblivion’, Dregen was back on board and The Hellacopters signature sound was pretty much intact. There’s no need to change a winning formula, so ‘Overdriver’ picks up where that album left off.
‘Token Apologies’ and ‘Faraway Looks’ are MC5-inspired high energy rockers, and the likes of ‘Don’t Let Me Bring You Down’, ‘(I Don’t Wanna Be) Just A Memory’, ‘Doomsday Daydreams’ and ‘Do You Feel Normal’ combine the powerful punch with catchy hooks and strong melody you would expect from The Hellacopters in full flight.
Elsewhere, ‘Wrong Face On’ swings with a serious swagger, ‘Soldier On’ has a slightly more doomy, downbeat vibe that’s quite reminiscent of Blue Oyster Cult, the bluesy ‘The Stench’ sits back a little more, and ‘Leave A Mark’ finishes the album off in big rock tradition with some pretty scintillating guitar work.
On a par, if not a little better, than its predecessor, ‘Overdriver’ sees The Hellacopters on top form with eleven top quality tunes brimming with energy.
- ‘Overdriver‘ will be released on Friday (31 January).
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