For their new studio album Swedish rock band have gone back to their roots in order to rediscover what inspired them. “Basically - to reinvent ourselves we had to go back to the summer of -94 when we first started this band and through that get in contact with the feeling and the vibe that inspired us in the first place. That same philosophy goes for the whole album - how we approached the recordings, artwork, choice of the right guy to mix the album and so on. In a way we are backtracking our roots to show ourselves why we once started this band. What we found out is that the very things that got us together in the first place are the same things that still get us going. So this is nothing less than Hardcore Superstar coming full circle by showing our fans where we come from and what we still believe in!”
With a little help from a cassette player, which reignited the bands spark, Joe Barresi (Slipknot, Queens Of The Stone Age, Soundgarden) mixing the album and a fusing of classic rock and skater punk the result is an exciting album which contains a contemporary yet retro feel. There are times when you could be listening to Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Pennywise or Jack White; its an eclectic mix, but it's what gives HCSS its sound.
The incendiary album opener, Don't Mean Shit is like musical touch paper which explodes through the rest of the album in the same way the Rock N Roll star lit up the middle of their 2000 album Bad Sneakers and a Pina Colada. Party Till I'm Gone is a mind-blowing mash up of Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way and pretty much any track from Alice Cooper's Trash album. Off With Their Heads sees the return of the melodic Alice Cooper feel with some splendid riffs and vocals. The Ocean and Touch The Sky change the tempo and feel of the album a little in terms of intensity but by the end of the album Glue and Messed Up For Sure bring the album to it's explosive full circle, with the final bars literally imploding into a silent blast.
A great album and a return to form for HCSS!