Turbonegro are back with another dose of their signature Norwegian death punk on their seventh release, Retox. And while nothing can beat the sensation of hearing Never Is Forever, Apocalypse Dudes or Ass Cobra, and experiencing these guys live for the first time, there is no denying the staying power of these fucking weirdoes.
Hank Von Helvete has proven himself a Shel Silverstein for adults with his constantly oddball and totally perverted storytelling. His freakish minstrel crew never makes a sound that isn’t a wall of driving, guitar driven rock—the way it’s supposed to be.
As much as I wanted to describe this as a washed up attempt at something, I was steered far clear of that sort of commentary with the first number, in which Hank refers to one of the characters in his lore as a DILF (Dad I’d Like to Fuck). And with titles like “Hell Toupee” and “Stroke The Shaft” (“the head’s off limits”), there is nothing to washed up about this record. Nothing.
Now that you know this, let’s get to the task at hand. Turbonegro has dozens of anthems to every hedonistic inspiration imaginable and then some; and the only way to experience this is by seeing them perform them live. Unfortunately for KB readers that attended the Monolith music festival this past weekend at Red Rocks, Turbo had to drop out of the line-up but are currently on tour with Mondo Generator for a time here in the U.S., going through NY, TX, WA, CA and cities in Canada before they venture back to their hometown in Oslo to start their European tour with Marilyn Manson, which goes through the second week of December.
If you’re one of the lucky ones that live in a city that’s part of their tour map, make sure you’ve engrained all the lyrics to Retox within your memory bank by the time you get to the club, ‘cuz you’ll look like a real douche if you aren’t singing along when happy Tom drenches your stiff denim with his blessed sweat in the front row.
