Helmut Cool? What the fuck is this?
And the cover? Wow, totally trashy. It immediately reminds me of the legendary longsleeve from the band Terrorgruppe “Burgerkrieg, by Terrorgruppe“. Reference? Let’s see.
And what’s inside?
Well, a band from Benztown...uh, Stuttgart, with their second album.
In 2017, the band released “Schlachtrufe BRD GmbH“. The cover was a homage to the legendary cover of the “Schlachtrufe BRD II“ sampler. There, you can hear 15 artistic outpourings from the band. These have such great titles as “Bachelor of Hartz“, “No, I’m not fucking my chancellor“, “Tindermatch mit Michael“ (for the younger generation, there was a show called “Kinderquatsch mit Michael“, by and with Michael Schanze) or “Kaufland must die“ (for the younger generation, there’s a band from Hamburg...). So, if you want to hear these wonderful songs and a few more, buy the album or listen to the songs and get familiar with the band’s humor and music.
Stylistically, it leans towards Terrorgruppe, maybe also Knochenfabrik, Zaunpfahl, and Supernichts. It also strongly reminds me of the unfortunately no longer existing Berlin bands Xarecrows and The Bottrops, especially because the singer of HELMUT COOL strongly reminds me of Benno (Xarecrows) or Bang Bang Benno (The Bottrops). Does anyone know where this Benno is?
The music comes across fast, melodic, and in a pleasing punk rock style. Not clunky, not too demanding, but rather light and breezy. The recording is good and fits well.
Lyrically, it’s quite cool. However, from my perspective, there’s a bit too much text. In fact, too much text. I miss the point you want to get to or even should get to. There’s lively singing and rhyming, sometimes funny and sometimes serious, but the chorus gets a bit lost. Sometimes it feels like someone just wrote a text and is passionately singing it. Am I too undemanding, and just want three times text, chorus, text, chorus, text, chorus...to sing along with the chorus and have an earworm?
Maybe I’m just not that cool, but as good as the lyrics are, not much sticks after the first, second, third, or fourth listen. It’s fun to listen to, brings a smile to your face, agreement, and sometimes even sing-along parts, but somehow it feels a bit lacking.
In any case, HELMUT COOL knows their stuff and goes out sometimes. Thus, the lyrics like “Sex, Lachs & Rock´n´Roll“ are a long-overdue statement, “Pisse und Schweiß“ also come straight from life, and we all know both. The “lyric fool” is somewhere between genius, amateurish, and bad humor, but that’s known to be the case when you still laugh. And if someone wants to know how to live or should live as a punk, they should listen to the “Regelwerk” immediately.
The closing song “Drei Mal dumm gelaufen“ (similarities to “N 48.3“ by Die Ärzte are possibly purely coincidental) also makes it clear that you can be very keen on someone, but if that person listens to the wrong music or even has the wrong party membership card, then it just doesn’t work. As a matter of principle! Period. No discussion.
Someone is speaking from my heart.
Overall, the record is quite enjoyable.
HELMUT COOL comes across fresh and is definitely a band that’s fun. Currently, they are playing quite a lot in the southern part of the republic. However, I would also be happy if they found their way to the northern regions.
Berlin is always worth a trip, right?
