Hellsingland Underground - Hellsingland Underground 2008

Up in the north of Sweden, in a county called Hälsingland, there is a small town with 8000 citizens called Ljusdal (The Valley Of Light), known for it's beautiful landscapes, deep Bauer-like forests, blue mountains and satanic folk songs. But also for their unemployment, low education and high crime rate. It is also the hometown of Charlie Granberg, the founder, singer and major songwriter of Hellsingland Underground. A majority of all rock band biographies tell the tale of the young rebel escaping from the narrow minded small town - moves to the city where he finally feels at home and makes it. This story could have been quite similar. If only things had gone according to plan.When Charlie was 18, he and two of his best friends escaped Ljusdal for Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. They had a plan. Being the losers they thought they were, they would move to the city and re-invent themselves by forming the most bad ass rock 'n' roll band the world had ever seen after their biggest idols Aerosmith and Guns 'N' Roses.But like most teenage dreams goes - their band eventually split up, they went separate ways and their brotherhood faded - while finding new friends and girlfriends in the Stockholm rock scene and moving on with their lives. Charlie became a pretty successful artist, illustrating record sleeves, posters and merch for various rock bands. The first time he met guitarist Mats Olsson and drummer Patrik Jansson was actually at a record company meeting with Wild Kingdom/Sound Pollution, where they discussed the cover for Mats & Patriks previous band Maryslims next album. It's kinda funny, looking back, that I didn't like Mats at all that first time. I found him quite obnoxious to tell you the truth Charlie laughs at the memory. They had no idea that some years later, the three of them would be the best of friends and form a new band together. It wasn't until the summer of 2006 where Charlie once again felt the urge to make music and be in a band again. And the reason for that, according to himself, was moving back to Ljusdal and becoming a father. I used to hate my hometown like the plague, and thought I would never go back there, but I guess after a while I started to hate Stockholm even more, haha. Charlie stated in an interview after the release of Hellsingland Underground's highly acclaimed and self titled debut in 2008. I just don't know where I belong, or where I will live until I die. He had met Lisa (that he sings about in Stickin' With You & Poor Boy) at the Ljusdal Stadt Hotel, as early as Christmas Day 2001. When she got pregnant in 2005, they left their Stockholm suburb and moved into a small house on the shores of the Ljusnan River, that runs through the valley of Ljusdal, their common hometown. It was both a relief and a shock to move back there, Charlie says. A relief to live the country life, be close to my family and let go of all the anxiety, nihilism and darkness of Stockholm. And a shock to see what had become of my childhood friends. Many of them had died or moved away, others had become heavy drug addicts or just plain unrecognizable. Lost friendship, drug addiction and paranoia - those were some of the lyrical themes on their first album. Let's fast forward the tape to the summer of 2007: Hellsingland Underground is about to go onstage for the first time ever as a band, headlining a small outlawish festival in the middle of the forest in Bergesbo, Hälsingland. They have only released a couple of tracks on their homepage 2 months earlier, but have already a fanatic following travelling with the band in a big bus. The band had printed 100 Hellsingland Underground t-shirts, that they had hoped to sell about 10 of. Within 30 minutes after arriving at Bergesbo, all of them are sold out. That's when we understood that we were reaching out to more people than just ourselves, it was a fantastic feeling, Charlie told the press afterwards. After their custom made intro, containing a freight train, a crying wolf, rolling thunder and the Horga song (a classic folk song about Satan coming to Horga in Hälsingland, playing the violin so good that people dance until they die), the band enters the stage and the crowd just explodes. People knew every word of the 6 songs we had had up on our MySpace, absolutely amazing, Patrik says. The last member to having joined the band was Mats childhood friend, guitarist Peter Henriksson, who had met up with the rest of the guys only one day before the Bergesbo festival for rehearsal. Previously, Patrik had brought his friend, keyboard player Mathias Stenson, to their first rehearsal. Charlie had seen bass player Martin Karlsson at a party, and just walked up to him and asked if he played the bass. I don't believe in destiny at all, but with this band, it feels like it was almost meant to happen. Everything just fell into place so quickly and it felt immediately like we had known each other for our whole lives. Well, some of us actually have, but anyway. Mats says, They released their self titled debut album Hellsingland Underground in march 2008, followed by a Swedish tour that culminated in a sold out gig at Tantogården in Stockholm. Charlie explained later how It felt really ironic that I had once moved to Stockholm to try and make it as a musician, having failed hard in doing so, moving back to my hometown, starting a new band, and then all of a sudden play in front of hundreds of people dressed in Hellsingland t-shirts, singing along to all our songs. In Stockholm! A city that I had almost come to despise. The song Slipping Through The Hands Of Time, became the 1 most played songs on IAC, a list that counts millions of internet radio stations and podcasts all over the world. The video for their song Northern Country Boy played several times on MTV and became a minor hit for the band. Without any promotion money (they released the album on their own label Killed By Records) the album managed to sell over 3000 copies, pretty much on it's own. Reviewers all around the world dubbed them as worthy successors of Southern Rock giants such as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker band. While the band persistently kept calling their music Northen Rock. We're from northern Sweden, not southern America, and we sound thereafter.



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Hellsingland Underground - Hellsingland Underground 2008
(Ljusdal Killed By Records)

1. Ill wind
2. Shadow of the old you
3. Slipping through the hands of time
4. Northern country boy
5. Ljusnan riverside jam
6. Child of another time
7. Blue mountain blues
8. Hard falls
9. Lost in the woods
10. God only knows