Hällas will carry the heart and soul of the 70s into the present at Roadburn 2018
Some bands just get it. They seem to fly straight out of the starting line with a clear vision already in place, a perfect balance of everything about music that can still excite even the most jaded cynic. It doesn’t matter if you’ve missed Hällas‘ short self-titled EP from a couple of years back – Excerpts From A Future Past, their first proper full-length record, will grab you by the throat within the first few seconds and never let go. And it will grab you gently, with a smile on its face.
While we often praise a band’s ferocity or primal ability to rage out, Hällas seem to do all that they do with the greatest of ease, with the simplicity of what comes naturally, without ever losing passion or intensity. And all that they do is quite a lot, it is in fact one of the most perfect approaches to hard rock, prog and proto-heavy metal that we have heard in a long, long time.
Excerpts From A Future Past walks that microscopically thin line between recovering the inimitable feeling of the hallowed 70s and still sounding like a record from the present age. It’s not a retro exercise or a throwback to any age. These are simply great, great songs, filled with countless fabulous guitar harmonies that will rub anyone into guitar-based music in the exact right way. Keyboards are omnipresent but never intrusive, filling up the space with organ and synth lines that truly add to the ensemble, and then… then there’s Tommy Alexandersson‘s voice, an organic, velvety low croon which calmly exudes tremendous soul.
Best of all, here’s a 70s-inspired band that doesn’t need to rely on Iommi riffs like almost everyone else – Hällas are much more Uriah Heep (if they had listened to Iron Maiden guitar melodies on their time machine) than Black Sabbath, they are vital and even playful more than dark and super-heavy. They sound real.
You know what, the best way to describe Hällas is to say that this is the sort of thing that Fenriz would probably go nuts about on his Radio Fenriz podcast… and after checking that, in that pause between these two last sentences, we see that he has already, of course.
Hällas will carry the heart and soul of the 70s into the present when they play on Thursday, April 19 at Het Patronaat at Roadburn 2018.
José Carlos Santos / November 2017
