The Hellacopters
Garage-rock revivalists are revived to preach the garage-rock gospel once again.
When rambunctious Swedish garage rockers The Hellacopters decided to call it a day in 2007, after 13 years of glorious ramalama, they did so with a sense of honour that’s all too rare in a rock world strewn with the debris of recrimination, rivalry and retaliation; not for them a descent into bitter internecine squabbling, instead an admission of reaching the end of the road and wanting to finish on a high. Alas – and despite their best intentions to alert the world of the next generation of rockers via a collection of cover versions – their kiss-off album, Head Off, proved to be a disappointing and sterile affair.
Which is a shame, because The Hellacopters are part of a lineage of flame keepers whose musical clock stopped in mid-1974. Across six albums of original material and the aforementioned covers album, they plugged directly into the high-voltage mains of late-60s/early-70s Detroit that sparked the MC5 and The Stooges into life. Indeed, when the surviving members of the latter decided to reunite for a turn-of-the century victory
