BAND: TURBONEGRO
ALBUM: ROCKNROLL MACHINE
RELEASED: 2018
REVIEWED BY: JOHN ERIGO
LINE UP:

• Thomas Seltzer (a.k.a. “Happy-Tom”, also “Tom of Norway”, “Bongo” and “Bongo Neger”) – bass guitar (1989–1990, 1996–present), drums (1990–1996)
• Knut Schreiner (a.k.a. “Euroboy”) – lead guitar (1996–present)
• Rune Grønn (a.k.a. “Rune Rebellion”, also “Rune Protude”, “Loonie”, “Thee Oi Boy!”, “Brune” and “Brune Neger”) – rhythm guitar (1989–2007, 2011–present)
• Tommy Akerholdt (a.k.a. “Tommy Manboy”) – drums (2011–present)
• Anthony Madsen-Sylvester (a.k.a. “The Duke of Nothing”, also “Ceasar Proud”) – vocals (2011–present)
• Haakon-Marius Pettersen (a.k.a. “Crown Prince Haakon-Marius”) – keyboards (2015–present)

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TURBONEGRO might be one of the bands you read about on this site that will make you say “Who the fuck are these guys?”, but this band has been around for quite a while. More popular in Europe and hailing from Oslo, Norway, they call their music DEATHPUNK. They started out as a pretty hard core punk band, evolving as time went on to become more of hard rocking band. Gone are the days of screaming vocals and poorly produced punk-ish style music. That was a long time ago, in a deathpunk galaxy far far away.

I got into these guys towards the end of their run with the front man Hank Von Helvete. Hank was one of the funniest rock n roll front men I had ever seen. Sadly Hank had to leave the band, more than once, and it looks like he’s not coming back. The band did get some USA exposure thanks to Bam Margera of “Jack Ass” fame. A few of their songs appeared on the Jack Ass show & movies. But now it’s a different band, moving ahead with The Duke Of Nothing, Tony Sylvester. ROCKNROLL MACHINE is their second full album with Tony as their singer.

I gotta say right off the bat, this album sounds much slicker, dare I say “over produced”. Something TURBONEGRO fans are NOT accustomed to hearing. It seems that the addition of new keyboard player Haakon-Marius  Petterson has sparked good ole Happy Tom(the band leader) to shift their sound to a more polished and key board heavy direction. Some of the keys come across as sounding retro, like on a 1984 VAN HALEN or SAMMY HAGAR album. Kind of taking the death and punk out of deathpunk! LOL!

BUT at the core of every band, every album – what about the songs? I’d love to tell you that they let one of rock n roll’s best secret weapons, the great Knut  Schreiner aka Euroboy loose, but that’s not the case, in fact the opposite here. I think that really takes away from the songs and album. But as usual, there are some really great catchy rock songs here for you to enjoy! PART II HELLO HELLO, ROCKNROLL MACHINE, HURRY UP AND DIE, ON THE RAG are more of your prototypical TURBONEGRO songs. But the album has this feeling of the band holding back, not letting Euroboy wail away(his solos seem to be waaaay too short), and the over use of keyboards. I mean how can you be singing a song called SKINHEAD ROCK N ROLL with all those 70’s/80’s sounding keyboards in the mix? Same with the (funny)song FIST CITY. So I have kind have mixed feelings about this album.

I really do LOVE this band, and they are always good live, but the over produced product here kind of dampens the mood. You will no doubt be singing along to some of these songs instantly, which is a TURBONEGRO trademark, but you might find yourself asking “is this really deathpunk?”. My opinion, if they stripped this album down a little and produced it more like a straight ahead rocker, it would be a monster of an album. I am sure these tunes will be really good live. Overall I am really happy the band continues, I just hope on future albums they revert back to more of a straight ahead rock band!