Lex Hives

Garage rock from The Hives

Many bands go through a real time testing before they finally get the fame and glory. That happened to the wonderful Swedish band The Hives, which was formed back in 1993. It took The Hives about seven years to completely deal with their style, entourage and other not less important attributes of a successful and promising rock band. The performers released their debut long play called Barely Legal in 1997, and that creation produced quite an effect upon lovers of fast and melodiousness music. The rockers did not simply stepped to the new millennium, they burst into it with accompaniment of their own songs from the album Veni Vidi Vicious. It seems that it was the record that became the breakthrough for the band and it let The Hives appear on the world stage. With time the quintet started going on tours, and this was an extremely important thing for them, as soon as that actually fulfilled the band’s potential. Many experts agreed that The Hives is one of the best groups of contemporaneity in the field of performing and rocking on stage. It is clear as a day that working in a studio is great, and all the bends without exception do their best to make their sound as good as it can be. However the live performances will set the records straight about those who can max out in front of the auditorium, and who will be acting comparatively calm. Well, The Hives and tranquility are the way too far from each other.

A dozen of explosive tracks from Lex Hives

So here it is, the fresh record from The Hives. And its cover got the same people, wearing formal suits. And it may be quite tricky for a person to say with certainty that these young men play very dynamic music, which is hardly relevant to their serious appearance. Actually, this contrast is one of the brightest features of the quintet, if you did not know. The studio attempt is opened by a composition Come On! with quite a simple lyrics. It is definitely becoming a new concert blockbuster, there is no doubt about it – everybody will be singing along! Then goes rather calm (for The Hives, of course) song called Go Right Ahead. And right after these two tracks any fan of a quintet may breathe freely, because the band did not change its style, luckily. 1000 Answers can be an outstanding example of that: the melodiousness, pushiness and a little bit disentangle guitars, ringing drums and the frontman’s amazing vocals – these are all the components of a musical cocktail called The Hives. Take Back The Toys, These Spectacles Reveal The Nostalgics and other drive tracks demonstrate in quite an understandable way that the Swedish rockers feel just fine within the limits of a garage punk-rock, and they do have a lot of fresh ideas to bring them to life. All in all you will not find any surprises on Lex Hives. And who knows, maybe it is for the better?

Loud garage punk rock

The irreplaceable frontman Pelle Almqvist keeps on pleasing listeners by his charismatic performing of vocal parts – how can anybody ignore that energy and a flow of positive emotions? And this effect is delivered by the studio attempt, which is truly amazing: this is not the concert version, initially charged with energy. Well, this amazing feature should be understood by those lucky ones, who managed to attend the bright show of the Swedish rockers. In fact, all music lovers who got the brand new studio attempt of The Hives will not be disappointed by the general quality of the presented material. The quintet established an amazing reputation a long time ago, and every new long play strengthens the band’s positions on the world stage. Lex Hives, for instance, is created in The Hives’ best traditions: it got dynamic, drive tracks with quite a short length. As a rule, these rockers’ songs do not last more than four minutes which means that they are very easy to listen, and it feels that you have to listen to them again and again. And this is another signature feature of The Hives – their records are usually played all over multiple times. Lex Hives does not seem to become an exception. One or two listenings will not be enough, moreover the entire album lasts for about a half an hour. But it is listened in one breath, which is great. If you enjoy highly energetic compositions and true energy in songs, then Lex Hives is your choice.