The nuclear war launched by The Hives in 2000 has never stopped detonating. Back then, with Veni Vidi Vicious, the quintet from Fagersta proved that three well-placed chords could be worth more than a thousand experiments. Their electric bursts tore through radios and clubs, cementing them among the protagonists of the garage rock revival alongside the early sparks of The White Stripes.
More preachers of the electric gospel than innovators: children of a Sweden that in the ’80s bred noisy garage bands and in the ’90s sharpened its teeth on the Hellacopters and Turbonegro. Garage is an attitude, but musically their true roots lie closer to Alice Cooper, AC/DC, and the Sex Pistols. Twenty years later, the script hasn’t changed — and that’s their real secret.
The Hives Forever Forever The Hives carries no trace of nostalgic posing: it’s ferocious, arrogant, and alive. Pelle Almqvist still howls like a possessed preacher, the guitars snap at breakneck speed, the drums pound with brutal precision. This is music built for stages — to sweat and scream together — not for distracted headphone listening.
Enough Is Enough, with Almqvist cast as a boxer ready to take on all comers, and O.C.D.O.D. are manifestos of this energy: venomous, contagious songs that go straight back to the fury of their beginnings. Sure, it’s “just” another Hives record — but the truth is, the formula still burns as brightly as ever. The Hives aren’t trying to age gracefully. They’re trying not to age at all. Mission accomplished.