Review: The Hellacopters ‘Overdriver’

Once upon a time, in the mid-to-late ’90s, I was a huge fan of the post-grunge, post-noise and garage punk that was making waves in the underground at that time. Bands like Rocket From The Crypt, The New Bomb Turks, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Murder City Devils, Zeke, and, yes, Stockholm, Sweden’s, The Hellacopters ruled my musical tastes back then.

I first saw The Hellacopters, who, had just released their stellar third album Grande Rock on Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop, with The Murder City Devils, and I became an instant fan of their brand of high-energy, damaged, yet catchy, brand of garage rock and roll.

Formed in 1994 by Entombed drummer Nicke Andersson, who switched to guitar and vocals, their first two albums Supershitty To The Max! and Payin’ The Dues, along with the Cream Of The Crap compilation albums, are peerless exercises in lo-fi, blown-out, distorted garage punk rock and roll. However, subsequent releases saw the band exploring the more melodic side of their rock and roll obsessions, perhaps peaking with 2002’s By The Grace Of God, and by the time the band released Head Off in 2008, it seemed their transformation into a ‘70s, easy-listening rock band was complete.

Then, after a fourteen-year hiatus, they got back together, this time bringing back original guitarist Dregen, who appeared on those revered, aforementioned first two albums, but left to focus on Backyard Babies, and my hope was his return, and their subsequent reunion album, 2022’s Eyes Of Oblivion, would at the minimum feature a little of the bite, and off-the-rails energy of those first two albums. And while it was a good, well-received record with some great songs, alas, we had more of the same über-melodic rock and roll, the difference being Andersson’s vocals are even cleaner in addition to being fourteen years older.

It is under these circumstances that I dove into their second post-reunion album Overdriver, this time without Dregen’s services as he is apparently recovering from an injured hand, leaving Andersson to oversee all guitar duties as well as the production.

Opening with, not surprisingly, a rock and roll banger, Token Apologies, that features everything we’ve come to expect from then with album openers pretty much since the turn of the millennium. Featuring plenty of pick slides, single-note keyboard bangs, riffing reminiscent of the first few KISS albums, Andersson bellowing ‘Oh Yeah’ and of course a melodic, sing-along chorus. Hell, I could even guess when he was about to rip out one of his patent leads, and sure as shit, he did not disappoint.

rock and roll swagger for days…

Staying in the same lane, we get a driving little rocker with Don’t Let Me Bring You Down, featuring literally everything that the previous track boasted sonically, but with an even more melodic chorus that will get stuck in your head, although I’m not entirely sure I was excited about.

Next, just when this reviewer thought they couldn’t descend further into ‘70s soaring soft rock, Andersson says ‘hold my Boston album’ and drops (I Don’t Wanna Be) Just A Memory which, while technically a good song, as its well written and executed, it frankly annoyed the shit out of me. At this point, I could live to be a hundred years old and not need to hear another overly melodic, lovey-dovey, life-affirming throwback.

And really, that’s where a lot of Overdriver sits. We get a bouncy, hip-shaking rocker with Wrong Face On, which might be more menacing with some oomph in the production, but instead, we get another catchy chorus. Soldier On is a four-plus minute slow-burn rocker featuring some piano flourishes, accentuating well-timed leads, whilst Doomsday Daydreams promise of a riffy rocker, evaporate the second the completely familiar melodic crooning starts, and while the chorus is a soaring, over-coming obstacles, ear-worm, it’s hard not to want some more punch.

Faraway Looks is sort of a burner, while Coming Down is a straight-up soft rock ballad. Just the title of Do You Feel Normal pissed me off, to say nothing of the twinkly, soft-rock chorus within. The penultimate The Stench again disguises itself as perhaps something heavier, but no, once the crooning starts along with the piano, this reviewer is left feeling empty. Overdriver closes with Leave A Mark, which I guess is a fairly rocking closer, and for my ears one of the better songs on the album. 

Look, there’s no debating the band’s impact on garage rock from the mid to late ‘90s and early ‘00s, nor can one deny their impact on Swedish rock and roll and European rock overall. As well, Andersson is a beyond accomplished multi-instrumentalist and genre-defining artist, whose music is among some of my favorites of all time. With that said, this is why I get annoyed with them and their last five albums, as they are all packed with this low-impact, weak sounding, melodic rock.

I get that bands change and evolve, but I’d argue The Hellacopters aren’t evolving. Instead, Andersson is leaning in even more to whatever this soft rock thing is that he’s been chasing for two decades. Overdriver isn’t a ‘bad’ album by any stretch of the imagination. It’s packed to the gills with early ‘70s KISS-style riffing, blazing leads, behind the beat rhythms, well-placed keyboard flourishes, those patented melodic soaring chorus’ and rock and roll swagger for days, but for this reviewer, it sure would be nice to get even a hint of that danger back that The Hellacopters used to wield so effortlessly.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Scribed by: Martin Williams