The Hellacopters: High Visibility : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The wailing, blue hard rock of Sweden's Hellacopters hearkens passionately back to the days when vinyl albums ran barely more than a half-hour, had gatefold sleeves and were stuffed silly with smokin' solos. High Visibility's thickly electrocuted riffs are redolent of Seventies arena-rock heroes from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Kiss; singer Nick Royale yelps, "Hey there, girl!" more convincingly than anyone (under thirty) in the biz. The chord changes of "Hurtin' Time" slice and dice like runaway lawn-mower blades, and the band even brings back the lead-guitar duel on "Envious," which climaxes, natch, with both Royale and guitarist Robert "Strings" Dahlqvist coming together to spew the same blistering, triumphant notes. Is it retro? Absolutely. The Hellacopters want to take us back to the future, to a time when men are once again guitar heroes and DJs are scared. And for almost exactly forty minutes, they succeed gloriously.

PAT BLASHILL
(RS 896 - May 23, 2002)