Hunter/Killer: An Electric Shock for a Decadent Culture!
We live in the darkest of times...
With wars, corrupt political landscapes, terrorist actions, religious fundamentalism and corporate world domination there is little room for humanity – it seems we are all destined to become either victims of atomic battlefields or raped soils.
Or simply be reduced to consuming machines in the hands of faceless greed and biased media.
For survival, the ordinary man must consult his heart while the faintest shred of decency is allowed to breathe in it.
The artist is faced with another dilemma.
If art is to be of any use or quality, it simply must reflect the society in which it comes to life.
As we live in an era of fragmentation where social structures fall apart, it is natural that the use of language, in both everyday life and poetic instances, should reflect this process.
Typically, the musical term heavy metal has in recent years taken on a variety of meanings, sometimes used to depict rather feeble artefacts of mainstream showbiz.
But while the original movement, with its roots in the Anglo-Saxon popular culture of the mid-to-late sixties, has spawned numerous neo-styles and “dialects†throughout the world over the years, some sort of core structure seems to exist.
Where earnest metal-heads can find refuge to this day.
Born in 1980, Swedish guitarist Hulkoff is a musical child of the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Being a Wagnerian at heart, this musician thrives on the gargantuan.
Via various projects in the metal field, his search for credibility and direction has now reached at least a temporary sanctuary.
Always with a penchant for drama and extravagant instrumental techniques, his manifold ideas have now been condensed into a single unit: Hunter/Killer.
Together with comrades in cause, singer Tom Krüger, bass player Waylon and drummer Matt Buffalo, premier string bender Hulkoff now declares war on indolence.
The axe man´s contribution aside, particularly the vocal track is strong. Krüger carries the band´s lyrical flag with conviction, bringing out primal angst as well as delivering subtle messages.
The sound of the rhythm section is a result of brutally forceful playing and contemporary programming – as a machine-like quality has been strived for in this department.
This very collective has now bestowed an Untergang upon you.
The most frightening aspect of this music is that it is so disturbingly of its time - the world as dystopian opera, with a libretto in languages deprived of their meaning.
Uncanny screams, agitating guitars and machine gun drum rolls create programme music perfectly suited for the new millennium.
Rather like curing depression in the electric chair, or making love at gunpoint.
A picnic in Hades.
Speaking of which, the group is also known for its disciplined and choreographed stage act, where man and machine meet in a theatrical shootout designed to numb senses.
...killing the messenger will not do us any good.
- Lars Stenman, 2006
