Ahh genre labels, where would we be without them? What
better ways are there to not just include bands into your listening circles by
labelling them under the same genre or sub-genre as your listening tastes, but
also to exclude any bands from ever giving them a listen? It seems a long time ago
when there were merely just pop/rock categories down your local music store, now
everything has its own sub-sub-sub-grouping, just to narrow your tastes down
even further. And just when you thought there were no more categories to
explore, we are given stoner-punk!
None of the genre ranting has anything to do with
Denmark’s finest purveyors of “stoner-punk” music however, and it’d be a shame
to take the attention away from the music, as their self-titled record is
pretty special.
Hjortene opens with ‘180,000 km/t’, a blistering three
minute blast of punk rock fury, with vocals from
Valiant Thorr’s Valiant Himself. Where the overtly punk aesthetic is clearly there, the attitude is
layered with thick and fast stoner riffs which make the band standout as genre
groundbreakers. It’s a sound which carries a nuance of surprise as you never
can settle with the sound, not knowing if the angry punk or the soothing stoner
is going to berate you next. Palle Hjort’s vocals throw the band back straight
into stoner territory with ‘Igennem Hárde Tider’, a slightly subdued voice
guiding the guitars into their layers of pulverising riffs.
Singing in their national tongue doesn’t affect the sound
of the band to those not fluent in Danish, as the lyrics become simply another
instrument to rock your fists to. Whether it’s the grooves of ‘Classic Rock FM’
or the instrumental onslaught of ‘Epic Indian’,
Hjortene is a record which dresses to impress with thick waves of
heavy riffage matched by a youthful urgency many try to imitate, but few
address naturally. A track such as ‘James Brown’ featuring vocals from fellow
Danish punk band
President Fetch, sung in English, is like a wake up call to
those stagnant bands on the stoner scene, to basically get there shit together
and step up their game.
Forget everything. Forget labels, forget what you think
you know about a sound, a genre, a style, a foreign language. Hjortene is a record which needs to be
explored and divulged into completely (and with the other band members going
under the names of Claus Doomhammer Hjort, and Kim of Death Hjort, how can you
possibly not get on board this?).
