Album Review: Turbonegro - Sexual Harassment

Some bands just refuse to die. Norwegian 'deathpunk' proponents Turbonegro rise from the ashes of calamity once more and return with their eight album, Sexual Harassment. If 2007 album, Retox, was the sound of a band stuttering to a halt, then this is the soundtrack to a rebirth, their vitality returned in spades. Three members have left since that last long-player – including frontman Hank von Helvete – but they've regrouped and kept on keeping on, with the creative core of Thomas “Happy-Tom” Seltzer and Knut “Euroboy” Schreiner still at the helm.

New singer Tony Sylvester has massive shoes to fill but he's aware of this – he was after all the head of the London Turbojugend – and while on initial listens it seems incongruous having a UK accent out front of this distinctly Scandinavian outfit, once you overcome that hurdle it's possible to appreciate the songs for what they are – a clutch of typically potent rock'n'roll belters. Hello Darkness is a devious mission statement for their return, while tracks such as Shake Your Shit Machine and You Give Me Worms are way better than their titles – as always Turbonegro are a bunch of supremely intelligent (albeit heroically reckless) folk trying to pass themselves off as dumb rock'n'rollers. They're still like crows picking up shiny objects, lifting snatches of lyrics and music from obscure – but always cool – sources.

As always the costumes, iconography, inherent humour and reliance on rock'n'roll tropes tend to mask the brilliance of this evergreen bunch of misfits. They might have some new faces, and they'll almost certainly never make another Apocalypse Dudes, but it's comforting to know that Turbonegro are still out their partying for our sins.