Because we love the rawk, we've spent the last few years searching out CDs by Swedish '70s-style metal godz The Hellacopters -- and then shelling out import prices for 'em. So we figured we'd caught a break when the band's fifth full-length, By the Grace of God, was picked up for domestic release.

That is, until we heard it and found it's the band's most -- oh, how we hate to say this -- mature (sigh) disc to date, full of acoustic guitars and pianos and anti-rawk frou-frou like vocal harmonies, guitars that are in tune and well-crafted arrangements. Which is not to say that tunes like Better Than You, All New Low, Carry Me Home and The Exorcist don't deliver the rawk anyway -- they just do it a little slower and more stylishly than before, sorta like an old postman in platform shoes.

To put it another way: In KISS terms, their old albums were Dressed to Kill, while this is Destroyer. And like that album did for KISS, By the Grace of God will probably make The Hellacopters bigger than ever -- but at the expense of their original fans.

Talk about being caught between rawk and a hard place.

Track Listing
1. By The Grace Of God
2. All New Low
3. Down On Freestreet
4. Better Than You
5. Carry Me Home
6. Rainy Days Revisited
7. Its Good But It Just Aint Right
8. U.Y.F.S.
9. On Time
10. All Ive Got
11. Go Easy Now
12. The Exorcist
13. Pride