Turbonegro

In the summer of 1991, the new lineup released the Vaya Con Satan 7" in the U.S., followed by their 1992 debut album of Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives on Big Ball Records.

The musical pre-settings were anticipating later Ass Cobra era – dark death-driven punk rock with occasional excursions into hardcore and metal, as well as a tendency to disruptive and sarcastic lyrics.

Swedish broadcasting DJ Lars Aldman once described their sound as, "Radio Birdman meets Venom in an institution for sexually abused retards," and Danish Moshable magazine wrote, "One great big hunk of an album that simply barfs up the best in Scandinavian punk rock - and then slam it into overdrive.

With money left from a grant, they went for one gig confirmed in Ålborg, Denmark, then headed south to Hamburg, Germany, where they became stranded in an unsuccessful search for an opportunity to play.

After five days, the band ran out of money, but then they were able to make contacts with Gravy Train Agency, who organized several tours for Turbonegro outside Scandinavia in later years, as well as people from Crypt Records.

Their second album Never Is Forever (1994) was recorded by Christian Calmeyer at Nesodden Musikkverksted, and was self-released (limited to 1,200 copies) with a friend at Oslo Musikk Distribusjon.

"When the rest of the punk oriented world tried hard to be lo-fi and 'real', Turbonegro as usual went the opposite way, creating a miniature suburban deathpunk opera.

The release of this album followed their first full European Tour, which was nicknamed "Nihil Jung" and had 17 shows in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Happy-Tom summed it up with an anecdote, "So there we were backstage with our black faces and wigs and little hats, smoking pot with our all-time heroes the Bad Brains, and the absurdity just didn't cross our minds.

With their next album, Apocalypse Dudes, the band made a musical move into mid-1970s punk and glam territory in the spirit of proto-punk pioneers á la The Dictators, The Ramones or late Iggy & The Stooges, plus a bit of New York Dolls travesty thrown in.

Moshable magazine wrote, "Apocalypse Dudes is the perfect mix of classic 70's US punk / rock'n'roll like Dictators, Heartbreakers & Ramones... every tune on this release is fucking brilliant".

Leaving the band to undergo treatment for heroin dependency, as well as his struggle with depression, von Helvete returned to his childhood town in northern Norway.

The band saw very little money from the arrangement, and cancelling their tour with Nashville Pussy after playing only half the dates added to their financial problems.

Their appreciation among contemporary artists from diverse musical genres as rock, pop, punk and even black metal was displayed on Alpha Motherfuckers, a tribute album to Turbonegro that was compiled over a span of two years and released by Bitzcore in May 2001.

What was initially meant to be a one-off event to provide an opportunity to the many new fans to witness a Turbonegro performance, finally resulted in the band's reunion.

Burning Heart also licensed Turbonegro's most successful albums Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes from Bitzcore and reissued them as digipak CDs with additional video footage from the recent Res-erection show at Quart.

[5] The band released its highly anticipated album, the second installment of the Apocalypse trilogy, Scandinavian Leather in 2003, complete with artwork of a skull Ouroboros from legendary Revolver-designer Klaus Voormann.

A U.S. tour with Queens of the Stone Age proved that the American Turbojugend contingent had grown completely out of control, and almost 150 shows later, Turbonegro finished the Scandinavian Leather campaign by selling out the House of Blues in Los Angeles two days in a row in December 2004.

While Scandinavian Leather was recorded at their own Crystal Canyon Studio in Oslo, Turbonegro decided to bring in Steven Shane McDonald as co-producer for Party Animals.

Party Animals was followed by intense touring throughout Europe and, in October, they visited the U.S. A collection of remixes and rarities appeared in 2005 as Small Feces.

The band toured Europe in late summer in 2007, including an appearance at Download Festival and 10 intimate gigs in the United Kingdom.

Despite his departure from the position of rhythm guitar, he was still closely collaborating with the band by running their label, Scandinavian Leather Recordings and managing their itinerary.

On the band's website, they announced that, "[due to] personal problems and a focus on other projects, we have been forced to ask drummer Chris Summers to resign from Turbonegro."

Subsequently, in early December 2010, news broke that a new band featuring Hank von Helvete on vocals had been formed, called Doctor Midnight & the Mercy Cult, with an album to be released in 2011.

[8][9][10][11][12] Euroboy stated in an interview with "Lydverket" that Turbonegro would appear with Tony Sylvester as the replacement for Hank von Helvete for the first time in Hamburg on 15 July.

The new album would be titled Sexual Harassment, and would be released on 13 June 2012, on the Universal Music label for Norway, Sweden and Finland, and Volcom Entertainment for the rest of the world.

His former bandmate Happy-Tom paid tribute to him on social media,[15] as did current Turbonegro frontman Tony "Duke of Nothing" Sylvester, who wrote "I never tried to fill your shoes as that would have been impossible.".

For example, the cover of the single "Bad Mongo" depicts Adolf Hitler as mentally retarded, and in the song "Hobbit Motherfuckers", they complain that there is "not enough suffering" and "not enough natural selection".

Apocalypse Dudes introduced a combination of 1970s arena rock, irreverent lyrics, and punk stylings, which brought the band a level of notoriety that they had not achieved at any other point in their career.

Among the band's main influences are Black Flag, the Rolling Stones, KISS,[17] Venom, Radio Birdman, AC/DC, Iggy Pop & James Williamson,[18] Circle Jerks, David Bowie, Ramones, the Lewd, Hanoi Rocks, Alice Cooper, Negazione,[19] the Dictators and the Stooges.

Live at Koko in London, November 2005
Turbonegro in 2006
Turbonegro performing at Getaway Festival in Gävle, Sweden, 2015
Turbonegro playing at the Southside Festival in 2005
A Turbojugend from Ålesund on Reeperbahn
Group photo of Turbojugend Members at the "Welt-Turbojugend-Tage" 2006