Northern rap-metal stars claw their way back to the top

  • 2004-02-05
  • By Aleksei Gunter
TALLINN - Clawfinger performed in Tallinn, in the gym of the Art Academy, to be exact, in 1997. And while Club Hollywood in Tallinn, the venue of the coming concert, is not exactly the sort of place that usually plays host to industrial or metal concerts, it will hopefully survive one night of Clawfinger.

The Estonian bands Zorg and East Trading Wand will warm up what should be a revved up crowd of headbangers and prepare it for an onslaught of crowd-diving.
Once upon a time, Clawfinger helped Rammstein become the major stars of the industrial music scene. Right after that the situation made a 180-degree turn - Clawfinger became Rammstein's warm-up band for a couple of years. But some believe that while Rammstein has already run out of ideas, Clawfinger's music is evolving at full speed and getting more sophisticated from one album to the next.
For the Swedish and Norwegian band members of Clawfinger - Zak Tell, Bard Torstensen, Jocke Skog and Erlend Ottem - "love is just a four-letter word," and the group's lyrics are pleasingly philosophical for an industrial metal group.
Zak met Bard and Jocke in a mental hospital in Stockholm where they all worked as orderlies. They were pacifists - that is also clear from the lyrics - and had chosen alternative military service. Erlund joined the group later as a second guitar player. National Swedish Radio played their demo in 1991 and two years later they released their first album.
Cover versions of Ultravox and Pink Floyd played at early concerts have been forgotten and now Clawfinger has its own portfolio to drive a crowd crazy. The band feels free to experiment with hardcore, trash, industrial and rap-metal styles while not particularly focusing on any of these styles. The five albums released so far are all a little different.
The group's latest release, "Zeros and Heroes," is full of catchy choruses and the usual not-rapping-not-singing vocals of Zak Tell. Innovations include heavier guitars and a funny experimental song that sounds almost like a country number. If you miss the Clawfinger concert in Tallinn, you can always catch the group in Riga, where they'll be playing on Feb. 18.