The Next Garage Sale Warrior?

Norway's Hurra Torpedo provides quite a shock for anyone expecting the usual, ho-hum 21st century music. I met these guys on a Garage Sale Warrior tour stop in Oslo back in the mid-90's. We had a day to kill there after our show, so we jammed with them at a little dive bar the following night (our cameo appearance earned Hurra Torpedo its first major press). Kristopher, pictured above (and in the middle on the link below), absolutely blew us away. In fact, we cancelled our show in Bergen the following night to stay in Oslo and attempt to sign him to GSW. Who knows how his addition might have changed our future course? We were a little turned off by Egil's instrument choice of guitar, but there was no denying that the dude could sing and play. However, Aslag (the other "percussionist") would lead one to believe he didn't have a musical bone in his body were it not for his impeccable singing. It was as if he was just on the stage to thrash things.

Don't get me wrong, thrashing things was an important element of GSW's shows. Thus, I would be the last person to bash his methods for no good reason. However, unlike our aim, his was purely for effect. We did it for musical quality, and any visual stimulation was purely secondary. For instance, we slammed a chainsaw into sheet metal on our Werewolves of London cover because it was precisely the sound we wanted. It just so happens that no visual rival exists for a man swinging a running chainsaw into a giant aluminum wall. If you've never heard our take on the Zevon hit, it's not hard to imagine the sound of chainsaw on sheet metal in the place of the repetitive "Ah-oooh" vocals in the chorus.

Anyway, many are now trumpeting Hurra Torpedo as the next GSW. Randolph Turley of Underground Chops goes so far as to call them the "evil foreign stepchild of Garage Sale Warrior and System of a Down." Who knows? Maybe the world has had enough of Justin and Britney to finally seek out something different. If Aslag can calm himself down and concentrate on the music, perhaps the genre can take off this time.

Without further ado, I give you Hurra Torpedo.