SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE HECK – ON YOUR NERVES

The Heck
On Your Nerves
Soundflat Records

Netherlands’ garage punk band The Heck are still knocking out the tunes, with their third full-length album release, On Your Nerves. With this offering, the power trio of Henri Keefman, René Katerbarg and Erik Berends are still their same old fun, rockin’ selves. On Your Nerves sees them covering familiar ground, and giving us some treats, and a few surprises.

The songs of On Your Nerves almost sound like a sampler of early garage rock and punk, as we hear different influences creep into their music. Echoes of classic rockabilly are present here, as well as sounds that evoke The Sonics, The Yardbirds, and The Animals, all the way down to Iggy And The Stooges, Ramones, and Green Day. Not to name-check too many influences, but The Heck picked up the sounds that their influences left laying around, run them through the band filter, and have made something wholly their own.

With this release, The Heck have managed to create an album whose songs sound familiar and fresh all at once. Witness the frenetic energy of “On My Nerves”, the abrupt tempo changes and wicked rockabilly guitar of “Wild, Wild, Wild”; the raw glory of “Chance of a Lifetime”, and the plaintively sung waltz-time acoustic tune “Where Do We go From Here?” – are all worthy of note.

This band presents with incredibly high energy on record, and it would be amazing to see them live. Unfortunately, their official website cites only a few upcoming live dates, all in The Netherlands. Maybe we can get a campaign going to bring them to North America. Why The Heck not?

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