THE HELLACOPTERS

THE HELLACOPTERS
Biography

The Hellacopters are a Swedish band formed in Stockholm in 1994. Nicke Andersson, then the drummer of Entombed, started it with Dregen, who was taking a break from Backyard Babies, the bassist Kenny Hakansson and the drummer Robert Eriksson. What began as a side project became Andersson's main band.

Formed in Stockholm (1994- )

The first rehearsal was on 4 November 1994 and was no more than a jam. Dregen and Eriksson had been roadies for Entombed and Hakansson was a childhood friend of Andersson's. Two rehearsals later they released their first single, "Killing Allan", in January 1995 on their own label Psychout Records.

The name came from a magazine article Andersson and Dregen read in San Francisco while touring with Entombed. It was about the CIA watching Mexican marijuana fields from helicopters, and about what the Mexicans called those helicopters.

Three records for White Jazz (1996-1999)

After a second single, "1995", White Jazz Records signed them, and the debut Supershitty to the Max! came out in June 1996. It was recorded at Sunlight Studios in Stockholm with Tomas Skogsberg producing, played live throughout, and the sessions took twenty-six hours. The album won the band a Swedish Grammis in the hard rock category.

Anders Lindstrom of The Diamond Dogs — Boba Fett — came in on keyboards shortly before the band supported Kiss on their Scandinavian dates in June 1997. Payin' the Dues, recorded that February, was released on 1 October and reached number nineteen at home. Andersson then left Entombed altogether to give this band all his time.

In 1998, in the middle of a tour, Dregen left to go back to Backyard Babies; his own account was that playing in two bands at once was too much hassle. With no settled replacement, Grande Rock was recorded in September 1998 with both Lindstrom and Mattias Hellberg playing guitar on it. The record moved their sound a long way towards the rock of the 1970s and became their first to reach the Swedish top ten. Robert Dahlqvist was hired as the full-time lead guitarist after the sessions.

The two gold records (2000-2005)

High Visibility, released on 16 October 2000, was the first studio album with Dahlqvist and the first with Chips Kiesbye producing; Kiesbye went on to produce every subsequent studio album of theirs. It spent twelve weeks on the Swedish chart and was certified gold. The tour behind it carried a then-unknown band called The Hives as the opening act.

By the Grace of God of 18 September 2002 was cut down to thirteen songs from the twenty they recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm. It entered the Swedish chart at number two and the Finnish one at number eight, and brought a second gold record. The band also opened for the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top in Stockholm and Helsinki.

They then took a break, Andersson to The Solution with Scott Morgan and Dahlqvist to the band that became Dundertaget. Rock & Roll Is Dead followed on 6 June 2005 and reached number three at home; in 2006 they toured North America for the first time in three years.

A covers record, and the end (2007-2008)

On 12 October 2007 the band announced that they would break up after one more album, saying the reason was to stop while they were still at their best rather than any trouble inside the band. That album, Head Off, came out on 18 April 2008 and is entirely covers — which was not announced at first, so that listeners would come to it without expectations. Hakansson said he liked the idea that it would send people towards bands they could go on listening to afterwards. It reached number four in Sweden.

The last concerts were at Debaser Medis in Stockholm on 25 and 26 October 2008. Both nights were filmed and streamed live on the band's MySpace page.

Back together, and Nuclear Blast (2016- )

In April 2016 the band announced that the original line-up would reassemble for the twentieth anniversary of Supershitty to the Max!, starting at that year's Sweden Rock Festival, and they have played festivals since. Their former guitarist Robert Dahlqvist died on 3 February 2017, aged forty.

A deal with Nuclear Blast was announced in October 2021, the album was announced on 17 December, and Eyes of Oblivion was released on 1 April 2022 — their first album of new material in fourteen years and the first full-length with Dregen on it since 1997. In February 2024 two remixed versions of the 1999 album Grande Rock appeared.

The ninth album, Overdriver, followed on 31 January 2025. It was recorded at Strawberry Studio and The Honk Palace and is the first Hellacopters record Andersson produced by himself; the label called that year the band's thirtieth.

A note on the line-up

On 16 September 2026 the band announced a permanent split with their founding guitarist Dregen, over an injury to his hand. Their statement says he had not been playing with them for roughly three years, that the damage to his fingers does not heal, and that while he can still play some rhythm parts he cannot play most of their songs. LG Valeta, who had been filling in over those three years, continues as the guitarist.

No source publishes the line-up as a whole, so there is no table here. The official hellacopters.com answers 404 through a broken redirect towards the band's Facebook page, the band's own Bandcamp carries no credits, and Nuclear Blast's artist page names nobody.

The sources for this section are Blabbermouth.net's report of the band's statement, published on 16 September 2026, and the three pages named above.

Discography

Nine studio albums are registered on this site. The three Cream of the Crap! collections of non-album works, the Air Raid Serenades compilation, the live records and the split album Respect the Rock with Gluecifer are not included.

#	Album	Released
1	Supershitty to the Max!	1 June 1996
2	Payin' the Dues	1 October 1997
3	Grande Rock	17 May 1999
4	High Visibility	16 October 2000
5	By the Grace of God	18 September 2002
6	Rock & Roll Is Dead	6 June 2005
7	Head Off	18 April 2008
8	Eyes of Oblivion	1 April 2022
9	Overdriver	31 January 2025

For Grande Rock, Head Off and Overdriver the earliest date MusicBrainz gives for the release group belongs to the Japanese edition or to a pressing with a different track count, so the original release's date is used here instead. Supershitty to the Max! was published twice in June 1996 — the fourteen-track LP on the 1st and the thirteen-track CD on the 14th — and the table gives the first of them.

Japanese shows

One concert is registered: "THE HELLACOPTERS LIVE IN TOKYO 2025" at Toyosu PIT in Tokyo on 4 November 2025, their first Japanese show in about twenty-five years and part of the Overdriver tour. Doors 18:00, start 19:00, all standing, 12,000 yen in advance and 13,000 at the door, tax included, with the drink charge payable separately; general sale opened on 23 August 2025 after presales from 16 July. The promoter was Creativeman Productions, and the date, venue, times and prices all come from that company's own event page.

Of any earlier Japanese appearances, the announcement above says only "about twenty-five years", and none of the sources opened here gives a date for one, so none is registered in this site's LIVE section.

A note on sources

The facts above come from the English Wikipedia's band article (the formation, the band name, the twenty-six-hour recording, the Grammis, Dregen's departure and return, Dahlqvist joining and his death, the break-up announcement and the last two concerts, the 2016 reunion), its articles on the individual albums and its discography article (dates, labels, studios, producers, personnel, chart positions and gold certifications), Nuclear Blast's artist page and its own announcement of Overdriver (the 2022 and 2025 release dates, the studios, the producer and the thirtieth anniversary), MusicBrainz's artist and release data (the founding city, catalogue numbers, formats, track counts and the verified profile links), the Spotify embed payloads (identifying each album and whether it will play), and the Creativeman Productions event page together with Gekirock's announcement (the Tokyo concert). All were read on 29 September 2026.