Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Hellcats
Label: Rock Records
Release: 2013
Length: 36:09
Rating: 4.5/5
The all-female heavy metal band Hellcats have been shaking up the Slovenian music scene for quite a while now! In the positive sense of “irreversible penetration”. We’ve been missing bands like this forever. Believe me! It’s not easy being a purebred all-female band. Anywhere. Not even in Slovenia! A solid mileage of gigging and, you could say, some cunning weaving along a thorny path past plenty of pitfalls have given the band experience of incalculable value. If we were looking for the true tightrope walker between heaven and hell in Slovenia right now, Hellcats would surely be the top candidate. We waited a long time for the debut, even started to give up a little, but the wait paid off. In the final polishing of the product the girls went at it with real sensitivity and finesse. They wanted to squeeze the most out of themselves and, of course, out of everyone who stood by them while the album was coming together. And they can be proud of what they’ve achieved. That’s it for the intro.
»Divja pot« is an album that oozes nostalgic retro sound. Especially in terms of style. The riffs are concise, stocky and pushed right up front. They’re the basic backdrop of the band’s sound, used to the max idea-wise. The lines of the lead motifs are an adventure through bygone days, when albums like »British Steel« by Judas Priest appeared in the early eighties.
The band stitched the arrangements together with care. The songs are built to hit instantly. In other words, they ignite right off the bat! In the production, the contrasts between the four basic building blocks of the music are clearly laid out. The album’s sound has real liveliness and dynamics. The low end (the bass line) buzzes clearly and adds a pleasant warmth to the coloring of the album’s red-hot sound as a whole. Pre-choruses (Vladar noči) or intros (Čas je da greš, Ustaviva čas) are often layered with extra improvised guitar ornaments sitting on top of the guitar phrase. Tasteful throughout. So much for careful arranging. The melodic side of things, and what the album gets out of it, is outstanding! The Zagorc sisters, as the main composers of the material, are obviously a dream creative duo.
Solos? You won’t hear Satriani here. What you will hear is a textbook example of how a solo has to stand in a successful repackaging of heavy metal’s elemental heritage: it fans the dynamics of the songs and deepens the level of their theatrical drama, which keeps building toward the crescendo in the choruses. In terms of note placement, effective use of the “pull-off” in bending the tones, adding aesthetic “licks” and effective use of the tremolo arm, the album has a great sense of aesthetics. There’s no heavy philosophy behind it, but the effect of the solos is optimal. In the manner of the old school of Judas Priest, while for someone like Angus Young the solos are already overcomplicated (well, that’s a different style of guitar playing altogether). Guys – aspiring guitarists! Some well-meant advice for all of you! Don’t rush in with your ego, and don’t go flaunting your school-trained uptightness by showering us with a sea of notes per second, if your band’s expression is based on the classic reference points of metal and hard rock. If the hint isn’t clear, from now on you can take guitar lessons from Katja!
»Stripped bare and exposed« – an open riff built on a mid-tempo and the placement of a clean melodic line – likes to flirt with glam throughout the band’s traditional metal statue! That’s why this is an album that will unite fans of classic heavy metal and hard rock under one roof. The girls managed to get a few songs onto the album with hypnotic melodic seductiveness in the chorus tunes.
Vocals. Ajda, barely of age, is definitely a phenomenon. She has a clean, authoritatively melodic voice. She doses it out with a greater or lesser engraving of passionate piercingness, which effectively contrasts the development of moods in the songs. The dynamics of the mood shifts on the album rest on this as well. The girls contrasted the lead melodies with harmonies superbly and so deepened the feeling of real theatrical drama, which reaches such effective atmospheric peaks in the chorus tunes (Vladar noči, Prerojena, Viking, Bojevnica, the strikingly dark yet eruptive chorus in Sanjam demone). The melody in Viking is downright venomous. I dare say the melodic form of the chorus in that song is the most igniting one on the album.
I don’t like turning the story to the fact that the girls had to swallow reproaches for quite a while from frustrated »music doctors« of Slovenian male metal and rock bands, claiming that everything that’s denied to them, Hellcats reap with feather-light ease, since all they use for it is pretty looks, tight little skirts and the sultry charm of high heels. The opening bars of the album »Divja pot« instantly justify playing the ace of femininity in the marketing. It’s simply an excellent album, the kind many a male rock or metal band in Slovenia couldn’t cobble together, yet individuals from those bands love to »run their mouths« in casual debates and lecture others on how some thing »should musically stand here and there«. »Throw your balls on the platter first and then philosophize!« With their studio debut Hellcats have graduated with flying colors and shut the mouths of every silent grudge-holder.
I can say the job is done superbly. Above average for a debut. This is a standout on the Slovenian rock and metal scene. Although in terms of expression the girls offer no musical revolution, they’ve repackaged the reference points of the old metal school brilliantly and served up an excellent product, adorned with authenticity, sincerity, and above all a truthful flow of feeling that adds a lot of tangibility to the content. With her devotion to emotion and passion, Ajda brings the message of the song lyrics to life strikingly effectively. And that’s the essence of any product we expect seriousness and sincerity from!
Let me sum up. Excellent production, songs with melodies that grab your attention right off the bat, and simple, concise, stocky metal riffs that make no secret of big sympathies for the legendary Judas Priest from the period of their cult album »British Steel« (1980). »Divja pot« is an album with character, an album of clear musical vision, and an album whose already telling title reveals that by its release the girls had ridden a true adrenaline carousel of exciting events that crossed their rocker path. The songs are compositionally equal entities with a clearly crafted charisma, and the album doesn’t buckle on that front for even a moment.
»Divja pot« is an excellent calling card that gives Hellcats a credible base for competing on every stage in Slovenia and opens the doors abroad for the band too. With this album Hellcats can also instantly justify their candidacy for the role of the band that opens Slovenian shows in front of the big names of the world metal and rock scene. At the same time, and no less importantly, this album gives the band the credibility to set off on a ten-gig headlining tour of Slovenia, from Lendava to Ankaran.
This album also carries historical value for Slovenian metal and rock. It is, after all, the very first all-female metal album in Slovenia, with which Hellcats have set a new milestone in the Slovenian music scene, after which it will never be the same again, and they’ve enriched it significantly in the process. It could have been an «expressive botch«, which would have spoiled its testimonial importance from the standpoint of preserving musical culture as an art in Slovenia. But since the product is excellent, all of us Slovenian citizens owe it a deep bow, at least for the effort shown. And metalheads and rockers surely already have this album at home in their CD collection.
Lineup
Ajda Kovačič – vocals
Katja Mavec – guitar
Saša Zagorc – bass guitar, backing vocals
Sonja Zagorc – drums, backing vocals
Production
Davor Kontić & Saša Zagorc, Sonja Zagorc
Tracklist
1. Mačke pekla
2. Vladar noči
3. Prerojena
4. Viking
5. Čas je, da greš
6. Bojevnica
7. Heavy Metal
8. Sanjam demone
9. Ustaviva čas
10. Divja pot
