Legend has it that if you cut off one of the eight heads of the mythological hydra, two more will grow back. Swedish heavy rock quintet Electric Hydra know this fable well and they live by it. After several years of relative silence, the band rise once more with renewed force and a new full-length album, From the Fallen. Spanning eleven tracks, the record stands as a declaration of resilience and evolution, capturing a band reborn through adversity and personal struggle, emerging heavier and more focussed as a result.
Electric Hydra have long been known as a ferocious live act within a very healthy Swedish retro-rock scene that includes such luminaries as The Riven and Heavy Feather, delivering high-voltage heavy rock fuelled by chunky guitar riffs, explosive energy and catchy vocal hooks delivered by female lead singers. Over the years, they’ve torn up both intimate clubs and major festival stages across Europe, including Sweden Rock Festival, Fuzzfestival, Malmöfestivalen, and SWR Barroselas Metalfest in Portugal. Their self-titled debut album Electric Hydra landed in 2020 via Majestic Mountain Records / Tee Pee Records, earning strong praise from fans and critics alike. A standalone single, “Eyes of Time,” followed, and while the band suffered some line-up changes and the long shadow of the pandemic, the fire never went out.
Now, with the addition of guitarists Emil Andersson and Adi Selimic, Electric Hydra return reinvigorated as a powerful five-piece line-up: Sanne Karlsson (vocals), Ellinor Andersson (bass), Emil Andersson (guitar/vocals), Adi Selimic (guitar), and Dennis Åhman (drums). Released on 13th February, From the Fallen stays true to the band’s roots – fast, almost punkish aggression colliding with heavier, slower passages to give the album a degree of momentum.
The album also features guest contributions from Per Wiberg (Spiritual Beggars, Opeth), Mateo von Bewitcher (Bewitcher), and Bo Karlsson, father of vocalist Sanne. Drummer Dennis Åhman recorded, mixed, and mastered the entire album himself, shaping its sound from the inside out and giving From the Fallen a unified blueprint.
Scent of Blood launches the album, setting out the band’s stall with a whirlwind of pacey percussion, rasping riffs, booming bass as an intro for Sanne Karlsson to announce herself as a sort of Swedish Joan Jett. She belts it out with the best of them, while the band generally goes bonkers in this classic heavy rock vibe. There’s nothing particularly inventive about it, but the band do this signature work-out very well, and are clearly glad to be back and having fun. I can imagine their live act is something to see! Let The Chaos Unfold continues in much the same vein, the guitars and drums in particular revving things up nicely.
Prayers of Fire swirls in with a brief, deeply echoing bassline before the main track kicks in. Very punky as it unfolds a revved-up three-chord-thrash vibe, there’s an almost dreamy bridge section before we’re back into thrash mode. This one reminds me of an old Newcastle – based punk outfit called Penetration, Sanne’s vocals not dissimilar to that band’s lead singer Pauline Murray. The comparison is strengthened in the next, slightly slower, It’s All Just Dirt. Although its a straight-forward slowish heavy rocker, Sanne’s could easily be Pauline here – spooky! I have to say this one is a bit of a plodder, I thought its was set up for a decent lead solo towards the end but we just got more chuggalong.
I was just about to chunter that the next track When Destruction Calls emphasises a certain lack of variety, the tracks getting increasingly indivisible in their arrangements and delivery, when it’s redeemed to some extent by some tasty lead licks – more please! Does Contagious address this?….I have to say not really, the high speed chuggalong is sadly getting a tad monotonous. There’s another brief burst of lead, so the talent is there, they just need to break out of this circular chord-thrash?
A New Dawn is more like it, slightly slower and therefore creating the space for some lead work, even if the rhythm chord-line is a bit leaden. The same formula seems to apply to My Decay, there is some good solo work going on here, even if a little brief, but the basic nature of the track is the chugga-chugga-chugga…Riding the Haze features different vocals, even a bit of Growl from someone (Per Wiberg perhaps?), but the basic heavy chord thrash arrangement is rather predictable. The Fallen, ditto.
A Sky Full of Fading Stars is a decent ending to the song-set, actually introduced by a nice lead-line, shock horror! There’s a decent enough tune in here but the over-riding tone of this – and sadly the whole album – is the relentless chugga-chugga attack. After five long years since the killer self-titled debut, From the Fallen signals Electric Hydra’s full return, renewed and re-energized. The band are undoubtedly survivors, sounding loud, heavy and generally “up for it” but, please!, inject some variety into what over the course of eleven samey tracks begins to get rather stale?
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