Radioaktiva Räker – Ur Askan Ur Elden Not on Label – – 1991 – Cassette ♬ Full tape (mp3 320 kbps) FLAC files available on request

Image to the right: The city of Hofors.

I find it strange that steel town Hofors in Sweden did not have more punk bands. The city (about 10,000 inhabitants) has everything that would fertilize a great scene. The logic behind this reasoning is that is possible one of the worst shithole in the whole country. When national statistics are presented Hofors is in top of suicide rate, highest hashish consumption among teens and of course lowest male life expectancy. The main competitor of Hofors over the years seems to be Söderhamn. Having been it the city on a couple occasions I can report that the classic roundhouse “Lisas bar” it was standard procedure for the bartender to pour ALL the beers before opening and put in on a shelf for later sales. I can tell you that the beers sold around midnight were quite room-tempered and the carbon dioxide was gone 3 hours earlier. On the up-side; the price was very low and service was very very fast. Top that with beers was served with no consideration of the customer level of intoxication, it was frankly a cool place.

As for punk, one of the first band out was Tykoz Bravader in 1980 but after that it was quite quiet for some years ’til Radioaktiva Räker – translation Radioactive shrimps armed with Swedish melodic hardcore, or Trall as it called here, started to play. The brother in arms: Anttila and Torro (both guitar) quickly added Jon on drums and Jimmy on guitar and they had a stable line-up. This demo from 1991 was first out followed by Sanningen in the summer for 1992. With this demo they scored a deal with the Stockholm label “Beat Butchers” which had a bunch of similar act in the back-log like 23 Till and Coca Carola. The EP “Verkligheten” from 1993 established the band itself as one of the major trall-acts and scored them a bunch of gigs. The EP has possible they ugliest rear sleeve of the year. The band was very active up to mid-90’s when Torro folded but they have made some sporadic gigs over the years, the most recent at Hoforsrocken in 2011. When the local was free to choose bands for the festival, Radioaktiva Räker was the most nominated, beating Asta Kask

None of us here at the site spend too much to fortify the Trall-scene and this is a quite rare post. However, the gang did great shows and since Hofors is technical a city in Norrland (the Northern province of Sweden) it part of the editor’s area of collecting.

Click on the images to expand the higher resolution.

Tape

Fold-out, front

Fold-out, rear, lyrics

Letter