Hellsingland Underground Madness & Grace
by Derric Miller
Staff Writer
Typically, if you hear a song about a young boy walking into a forest and finding a goat’s head on a pole with its eyes eaten out, you are listening to Heavy Metal, and more likely, Black/Death Metal. So you have to thank Hellsingland Underground for throwing stereotypes to the wind in all directions on their new studio album, Madness & Grace. Hellsingland Underground is a Classic/Southern/Folk Rock band from Sweden who sounds like they were raised on The Marshall Tucker Band, The Allman Brothers and maybe Todd Snider, although they are the same age as Snider. While extremely talented across the board, it is clearly their songwriting — and specifically the lyrics — that make these guys quite possibly the most honest, interesting and existential band on the planet right now, who just happen to also create music that makes you want to drink (heavily) and dance.
“The Spark That Never Dies” opens Madness & Grace with a Southern Rock tinged anthem. The collective musicianship is on rare display here, from the drum rolls of Patrik Jansson to the quirky, almost Metal-hued guitar solo from Mats Olsson. Lead singer Charlie Granberg, who writes most of the music, lends his storytelling vibe to the track, completely warm and embracing, and if this was written in the ‘60s or the today in the 2010s, it still stands ahead of the pack in each decade before it. Granberg’s talented, understated vocals and imagination steer the Hellsingland Underground ship, and it’s a hell of a cruise.
“Shuffle Day to Day” is the first time you start understanding the darkness pervading Hellsingland Underground, but it’s not mystical or faked. Granberg writes songs based on his experiences, and he is more than a curious bystander as he travels through life. How much more honest could you be, and how many of you have experienced the exact feeling when he sings, “This life, I guess, what can you do? In the end, all you ever have is you …” It’s a song about getting by, and while upbeat and wildly melodic, it’s also a bit sad.
Speaking of sad, the poignant “Vera” is one of the best songs on Madness & Grace. In an interview with Hardrock Haven, Granberg noted he wrote the song about someone he knows personally, so it nails you when you hear the words, “She says God, please take me home, cuz 100 years is a long, long time. I’m getting curious about the other side. And besides, what use am I? I’m not needed by anyone …” A female voice duets with Grandberg as the tale expands to Vera traveling to the United States, and then coming back to Sweden in 1957, but she never got back. This is better than the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss duets you’ve heard.
As the album continues, song after song mesmerizes you. The track “Full Buck Moon” sounds similar to the aforementioned Todd Snider, another storyteller who writes about his experiences in life, and how they aren’t always uplifting. In “Full Buck Moon,” the main character turns down a friend’s request for cash, knowing he’s an addict. But, 45 minutes later, when the friend returns, he gives him the money “’Cause I figured if he really needs some, he’s gonna get them anyway.” The rest of the song is how the main character lies to the addict’s mom, how they can barely nod to each other when they pass, and of course, the sentence, “Goodbye to you, I really do hate you,” echoes for a while. If you didn’t know that life was pain, and consequence, well, listen to Hellsingland Underground.
A piano melody from Mathias Stenson begins the track “Short Time in the Sun,” and this is one of the most darkly poetic songs you’ve heard in year, and what’s more, it’s true, as Granberg attested to in his aforementioned interview. Check out the lyrics: “As a kid I walked through the forest, and found a goat’s head on a pole. With its eyes eaten out of it, leaving two black gaping holes. It got me talking about how all of us someday will die. All our friends, siblings, parents, and even the newborn ones.” While existential — begging the question “why are we here” and “what are we here for” — it’s masterful how the band plays the song with such earthiness, so unpolished yet completely authentic. Later, the song describes a man dying in Copenhagen, after being struck by a car, as the protagonists watch his blood flow down the streets. Instead of making them feel frightened, it energizes them, steeling them to take advantage of the time they have left, in their words, “while your head is still young.” In a word … perfect.
The title track is the journey’s end here. “Madness & Grace” is a mid-tempo composition, rife with more dissection of the human condition, with lyrics like, “What are we trying to drink away my friends? We never really thought that we were doing anything wrong. We’d just pour another drink, and pretend we’re still young, while we ask ourselves, are we really, that, alone.” The song is about growing up while not being fully aware of growing up, and trying to recreate your past, and your youth, while not being able to recall who you used to be. It’s the ominous feeling of being bereft of something you cannot define. If you haven’t figured it out yet, when you listen to Hellsingland Underground, pay attention.
With all of the lyrical creativity, if you boil it down, Hellsingland Underground doesn’t need to be deconstructed to enjoy Madness & Grace. Their music is accessible with its Folk/Southern Rock roots, keenly melodic, and as noted, could be popular in the hippy days of the ‘60s and ‘70s as well as in the endless unease of today. There is just no band on Earth that sounds anything like Hellsingland Underground when you combine all the ingredients, and it is almost oversimplification to only label them unique, innovative and artful.
Band:
CHARLIE GRANBERG – Lead Vocals, Harmonica
MATS OLSSON – Lead & Rhythm Guitars, Backing Vocals
MARTIN KARLSSON – Bass, Backing Vocals
PATRIK JANSSON – Drums & Percussion, Backing Vocals
MATHIAS STENSON – Piano & Organ
PETER HENRIKSSON – Lead & Rhythm Guitars, Backing Vocals
Label: Sound Pollution/Killed By Records
Online: www.hellsinglandunderground.com
Track listing:
1. The Spark That Never Dies
2. Shuffle Day To Day
3. Forever Damned
4. Vera
5. Church Bells Through The Valley
6. Stickin’ With You
7. Diabolic Greetings From The Woods
8. Full Buck Moon
9. Debauchery
10. A Short Time In The Sun
11. Poor Boy
12. Madness & Grace
Hardrock Haven rating: 9.1/10