Release date: September 26, 2025
Label: Self-released
Production: Sergej Pobegajlo
EP length: 21.07 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
The EP “Unstoppable” carries extra weight for Hellcats, the first and only all-female heavy metal band in Slovenia. After the sharpest-dressed girls in the country dropped their debut “Divja pot” in 2013, it took a full twelve years before we got any new studio document from them. And here it is, “Unstoppable”. A real, honest-to-goodness endurance test. The title track is the EP’s big moment, with the chorus erupting in a bomb of cheer and bubbling optimism! It’s that feeling when you want to just take off after pulling off a truly huge win! And that’s when you feel unstoppable!
The new EP, six tracks and a good 21 minutes of playing time, is a show of defiance and perseverance. Over the last decade the band has been through some serious upheaval. Lineup shake-ups and plenty of life challenges kept pushing it onto the sidelines. But the girls held on.
And new material was taking shape all the while. Under the watchful mentorship and guidance of the legendary Sergej Pobegajlo (Krom, Junaki nočne kronike, Ognjerezi, Bombe, Billysi, Gora), Hellcats locked themselves in his studio and hacked out six new tracks. The core is still the original chieftains, the sisters, bassist Saša and drummer Sonja, without whom the band is impossible to imagine one way or another, while the quartet’s new look is filled out by fiery vocalist Sara Simeunović and guitarist Mia Marinič, armed to the teeth with just the right tricks. The quartet has finally settled in this lineup. It found stability, and the chemistry between the building blocks of the new lineup is clicking at exactly the level it should!
The band’s style on the new EP keeps a logical link to the debut “Divja pot” (2013), which was considered a job done with flying colors. Elemental, old-school heavy metal! A right hook straight to the forehead, no messing around! No unnecessary detours! Traditional metal track, in other words, attacking with frontal honesty! Every song opens with a piercing guitar phrase, and the mood peaks in soaring, catchy choruses. This time the girls delivered four of the six tracks in English. With English it’s much easier to hit the level of bombast you’re after and keep most of the musicality that the vocal performance builds. A gorgeous example is Spiderweb, which has one of the EP’s most grabby chorus melodies. From verse to pre-chorus to chorus, the band very skillfully ramps up the atmosphere to the chorus crescendo. But Hellcats stay true to Slovenian too! Because that point about English doesn’t always hold! Two tracks nail this beautifully: the raging assault Črna burja, with an especially venomous guitar solo, which the band first recorded in English (Black Thunder) but found worked better in Slovenian. They made the right call! We get a Slovenian track in the closer Naprej too. There, a cleverly woven tangle of vocal harmonies stands out, deepening the song’s bombastic reach, and the band kicks it off very skillfully right in the pre-chorus! This track, the last one on the EP, symbolically hints that the road doesn’t stop here and that a proper full-length album is very likely at the door!
On this EP everything is where it should be. Elemental energy, high musical payoff, destructiveness, theatrics, a properly developed level of bombast and, most importantly, a pleasing amount of variety in compositions that are otherwise doomed to the stereotypical recipe of the old-school heavy metal mold. The quartet stays driven and fiercely passionate! And, as the EP’s title says, undoubtedly unstoppable!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
p.s.: since I no longer have time to go to release parties, I’d like to thank the highly esteemed guru and respected elder of rock ‘n’ roll Dragan Bulić for so selflessly delivering me a copy of this EP!
Tracklist:
1. Black Thunder
2. Unstoppable
3. I Am
4. Spiderweb
5. Črna burja
6. Naprej
Lineup:
Sara Simeunović – vocals, backing vocals
Mia Marinić – guitar, backing vocals
Sonja Zagorc – bass guitar, backing vocals
Saša Zagorc – drums, backing vocals
