Disco de The Hellacopters: “By The Grace Of God”

Great rock album. Gotta kind of wonder what happened in between Payin' The Dues and this album. This album is much more slick and restrained with a more clean sound. Definitely a lot of time spent on production. Kind of lost the harder more punk edge. Definitely has kind of a "classic rock" feel to it. Songs have more structure and are more radio friendly. Different from the stuff I've heard from them previously...but not "bad" different. Just different. Took me by surprise most definitely.

The Hellacopters have their roots in the 1970's rock and you can easily hear that these guys have listened to early Kiss a lot. "By the grace of God" and the equally good "High visability" displays a band that have the melody, the groove, and the more or less "dirty" rock sound that got lost sometimes in the late 70's.

"By the grace of God" include several songs with hit potential like the title track, "Carry me home", "Down on free street", "Rainy days revisited" among others. ...

Amazon claims that this is The Hellacopters second album - WRONG! The band have released at least five records but it's on this one and the former "High visiblility" the band shows how good they really are. The earlier albums is more raw and dirty - don't buy them unheard!

No matching black suits, no stupid fake macho names, just more smokin' rock 'n' roll from one of the most underrated ( and un-noticed) bands out there. Everything about this album is better than any of their previous work (not to say they don't rock)...the production, the songs, the band, Nicke's voice, etc.

Boba's piano & organ seems to fit better than before, and the songs are more, dare I say, "poppy-er", but they still have that edge that makes 'em rock.

This album doesn't even fit in the so-called "garage rock" category. They seem to have moved into a new area that isn't like any of their previous work. But if you're a fan of gold ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll, GET THIS CD!!! After you listen to it, do yourself an even bigger favor by seeing them live...you will not be disappointed! The only reservation I have is, when it's this good, where do they go from here?!?

This is a must have cd for any fan of the band. For the uninitiated, however, "By The Grace" is not the best place to start if you want to experience the harder rocking, MC5 inspired sound, which put the band on the map. "Grace" contains more melodies, has better "production" and a tighter sound than previous albums, but personally that means commerical success (not quite a sell-out at this point). The twin guitar attack is mellowed in the mix in favor of song structure and overall restraint. At times the band comes off sounding more like the Romantics than MC5. But again, that's my personal opinion. I'm a metal head by trade and tend to view the albums from that perspective.

So if you like your "hard rock" a bit on the mellower side (even though that might be a contradiction in terms), this album might be for you. But if the intro to "Kick Out The Jams" is what moves you, opt for previous albums "Payin' The Dues" or "Grande Rock".

OK, it is definitely not as hard-hitting or punkish as some of the earlier Hellacopters. This one shows some minor influences from the affiliations of the members of Hellacopters with another great Swedish band, Diamond Dogs. Personally I think it is all for the good though. It is still Rock and I mean Real Rock, give me a lightening bolt with that one. This is not your Daddy's Classic Rock by any means (BTW, I'm over 50 so I know classic rock). This stuff kicks out the jams. MC5 would be proud of these guys for updating their sound and holding true. See them live if you can for the real Real Thing.