You know what they say about artists not becoming famous until
\nthey’re late in life or even dead, right? Such thoughts give me the
\nopportunity to draw the same conclusion about the marketing
\nmastermind at White Jazz Records that thought to package two
\nrelatively obscure rock bands, the Hellacopters and Gluecifer,
\ntogether on the compilation
\nRespect the Rock<\/i> back in 1997. Calling these bands relative
\nunknowns at the time was surely a generous statement to say the
\nleast.<\/p>\n
Well, maybe parts of Europe actually knew who the Hellacopters
\nwere, since they had come out of nowhere to claim a Swedish Grammy
\nnomination for their debut album
\nSupershitty to the Max<\/i>. Their vocalist and lead guitarist,
\nNicke Andersson, had recently left his previous gig as the drummer
\nand sometimes vocalist for the highly acclaimed (even if it was
\njust in the underground) death-metal band Entombed, to create the
\nHellacopters with three of his former drum techs.<\/p>\n
Gluecifer, on the other hand, had yet to release a full album.
\nSure, they had
\n19 Inches of Rock<\/i> out in limited distribution at the time,
\nbut that was a release that was nothing more than a compilation of
\ntheir first two EPs.
\n19 Inches of Rock<\/i> barely had more copies in circulation in
\n1997 than the collective amount of the band’s first two EPs.<\/p>\n
Respect the Rock is a six-track sampler that proved rock wasn’t
\ndead while grunge was at the height of its popularity. Mind you,
\nthis album was also rock at its raunchiest and sweatiest form with
\nabsolutely no pretensions being made towards anything other than
\nwhat was to come through the speakers. The term punk n’ roll is a
\nfitting description. That is, real attitudinal punk, not the happy
\nslop derivative that is commonly passed off for the genre
\ntoday.<\/p>\n
Of the three Hellacopters tracks on the album, “You are Nothin'”
\ncame billed in the liner notes as “a nasty little taster to give
\nyou an idea how fucking brilliant our forthcoming album is.” The
\nHellacopters had yet to release their second album
\nPayin’ the Dues<\/i> at this time but had slated this track to
\nanchor that effort. As brazen as such a statement was, “You are
\nNothin'” is truly a sledgehammer of a track that has eventually
\nbecome one of the band’s staple tracks. Dregen wah-wah’s his rhythm
\nguitar parts in distorted fashion while Andersson breaks off his
\nlead solos whenever the mood seemingly suits him on the song.<\/p>\n
“Kick this One Slow” and “Another Place” don’t stray at all from
\nthe formula of the first Hellacopters song. The two tracks are
\nloosely controlled jam sessions that harken back to the day when
\nthe MC-5 were doing their thing. Additionally, the vocals sound as
\nif they are channeled through a ten-foot pipe which make sense for
\na band rooted in a death metal past although there are enough
\nattempts at melody to make the songs footstompers in and of
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
From the opening guitar riff on “Rock Throne,” Biff Malibu of
\nGluecifer proves the stars are too easy a target to aim for as he
\nvocalizes that he’s “on the rock throne, all alone” in addition to
\nbeing the “king of rock” all in one pummeling chorus line.
\nGuitarists Raldo Useless and Captain Poon tapdance around Malibu’s
\nbravado with an equally punctuating assault. It’s 110% rock and
\nroll and as with the first Hellacopters track mentioned above,
\n“Rock Throne” is the track for which Gluecifer has come to be
\nknown.<\/p>\n
“Burnin’ White” and “No Way” are supercharged punk n’ roll
\ntracks that are equally aggressive in leaving little doubt that
\nmaybe Gluecifer should be alone on their rock throne. Not a weak
\nlick to be found on either track.<\/p>\n
So even with the slight head start that the Hellacopters story
\nhad given them, history will prove that the two bands needed each
\nother as sparring partners during the early days in order to become
\nthe heavyweights of the current Scandinavian Rock phenomena. It’s
\nnot so much that aggressive rock n’ roll hadn’t been attempted in
\nthe past; it’s just that rarely had there ever been such commitment
\nby the bands performing the said material to come off as true
\nmasters of their craft. Singularly, each band on this disc had
\nenough creative ideas to make a few dents on their local audiences
\nbut it took the public curiosity of two bands doing the same thing
\nfrom the largely out of the way lands of Scandinavia to build a
\nplatform for greater things to come.<\/p>\n