Grande Rock

Hellacopters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 8, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B00000J6C6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,921 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If ever there were a manifesto against electronica's bleeps, blurps, and brainwashed soundscapes and that decried alt-rock's fey pretensions, Grande Rock could be it. The Hellacopters play kick-ass, butt-stomping rock à la Ted Nugent at his most gonzo, MC5 at their most coherent, and Mudhoney at their least bratty. The best thing about the Hellacopters is that they pull off their rock caper without a trace of irony; this is the pure dose. These guys were born to Rawk! and they know it. Hellacopter fans are largely co-opted by this Swedish outfits outstandingly thunderous and frenetic live escapades: their studio albums somehow never quite recreate the sweat and smell of the 'Copters onstage. But Grande Rock, their stateside debut on legendary-but-tarnished grunge-rock label SubPop, comes damned close. Just listen to the slabs of meaty hooks, primal vocal screams, raging tornado drum rolls, and ear-searing guitar solos. Unlike their loud progenitors, the Hellacopters know how to keep it short and sweet: the opening track "Action De Grace" ends as soon as it hits it's crescendo--after only two minutes. Most tracks barely clock over three minutes. Yet somehow the boys manage to cram in a hellish amount of rock in that short time. The best song here is "The Devil Stole the Beat from the Lord"; Grande Rock makes the case that the Hellacopters are the horned one's accomplices. No just court of rock could acquit them. --Tod Nelson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as earlier albums...but it really does rock, June 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grande Rock (Audio CD)

The past few years Scandinavia has cranked out an awesome amount of kick-ass, low-fi rock. Why? Who knows. But somebody's been listening to their old AC/DC, KISS, MC5, Pagans, and lord knows what else. The best of the bunch are Sweden's Hellacopters and Norway's Gluecifer. The Hellacopters' latest is cleaner and tamer than their first two records. That's not such a good thing. The Hellacopters write great rock songs, but their intensity and energy is what puts them over the top. By cleaning up the album, they've lost a lot of that energy. The production also makes you realize that Hellacopters mastermind Nick Royale (aka Nicke Andersson, the former drummer for Entombed, for you metal fans) can't really, uh, sing. Yell, scream and howl, damn straight. But sing? Still, there's some hugely fine songs here, and even a slightly limp Hellacopters is worth a whole can o' whup-ass. If it sounds like your thing, try to find their earlier records "Supershitty to the Max" and "Payin' The Dues". Anything by Gluecifer (especially "Ridin' the Tiger" and "Soaring With The Eagles...") goes down great too. And never, EVER pass up the chance to see either one live. It's a show you don't want to miss.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Transitional Album Between Two Masterpieces, March 4, 2002

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Grande Rock (Audio CD)

This is the type of album you get when a very talented band has too many ideas. Head Hellacopter Nicke Andersson (a.k.a. Nick Royale) is a Swedish guy with vast knowledge and understanding of American rock, and the 'Copters are clearly interested in exploring entire genres of music. On this album's predecessor, Payin' the Dues, they tackled the punk-based heavy Detroit sound of the Stooges and MC5, and delivered a raging slab of relentless hard rock. The album after this, High Visibility, shows the band moving comfortably into blues-rock and southern boogie, and is a masterpiece of laid back grooves and excellent musicianship. Those two albums hardly sound anything alike, and Grande Rock is the missing link. While I'm sure it wasn't intentional at the time, this album represents a rather awkward transition between those two other masterpieces.

The focus on this album is Stones-based garage rock, but there are some problems with the songwriting here. The album opener "Action de Grace" is undeveloped and barely registers as a distinct song. While most 'Copters tunes barely make it past three minutes, there are two epics here, "Welcome to Hell" and "5 vs. 7" which both exceed five minutes, but unfortunately can't keep their momentum going and just get repetitive. Another problem with this album is unstable personnel, as former lead guitarist Dregen (who returned to his fulltime band Backyard Babies) was not officially replaced, leading to some very unfocused guitar interplay here. Keyboardist Bobby Fett was added as a permanent member, but I suspect that he came on board after these songs were written, because his organ and piano work merely sits on top of the songs and clutters them up, and he can't really get underneath the rhythms.

However, for listeners who are not too concerned about this band's larger historical trends, this album does deliver plenty of full out rock n' roll, like "Alright Already Now" or "The Devil Stole the Beat from the Lord." But as part of the Hellacopters' overall body of work, Grande Rock can't quite stand up next to its brothers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hellacopters' weakest album, made during an awkward transitional phase, June 22, 2007

By 

drumwolf (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grande Rock (Audio CD)

The Hellacopters first started out as a young-loud-and-snotty garage punk band who liked to crank out raw, scuzzed-out Stooges/MC5-influenced riffs. Then their guitarist Dregen left and was replaced by Robert Dahlqvist, and they morphed into a retro '70s-classic-rock style band with some real songwriting and instrumental chops.

GRANDE ROCK was the band's first album with Dahlqvist, and they were still making an awkward transition into their new sound at the time they made this record. As a result, this is by far the Hellacopters' worst record. It's full of tired, warmed-over classic-rock riffs over weak, lackluster and uninspired non-songs. By the time they made their next album HIGH VISIBILITY, they'd developed their songwriting chops, so even though that album continues in the same vein musically, it's a way better album than GRANDE ROCK.

I made the mistake of buying this as my first Hellacopters album, and I was almost scared off from buying anything else from them as a result. They're a great band, but this is not an example of their best work.