Year: 2024
Label: De La Rocka

It’s been a long and winding road for Finnish singer-guitarist Panu De La Rocka. His previous band Graveyard Bashers released their third and final album in 2021 (Wreck ‘Em Dead, reviewed here). Not long after, they disbanded and the man set out to record a solo album under the moniker of De La Rocka.

Since then, the originally studio only project has become a real live band, the amount of guests on the album blew up entirely and the choice was made to self-release the album instead of relying on a label. That’s a lot of twists and turns in the making of an album.

At the center of all this is – of course – the album and the music. De La Rocka has teased the psychobilly crowd with a 7″ single (reviewed here) and a mini-CD (here), offering in advance in total six of the album’s thirteen tracks. So a lot of the material is already familiar when you pop this into your player.

But that doesn’t stop one from being impressed. Because, quite frankly, it’s been a while since a psychobilly album has punched me in the gut like Nightmare Reborn. Even the familiar tracks get a new lease of life when put into the final context of the finished product, and most of the new tracks are every bit as good as the old, already familiar tracks.

Stylewise, the album is just what the advance tasters promised: psychobilly in a very traditional vein, eschewing all of the extreme heaviness of Graveyard Bashers for a decidedly second wave style. In other words, the music is fast, melodic, hard and catchy, with the slap bass ticking away furiously.

The presence of guests isn’t a surprise, either: advance tracks featured Titch from Klingonz and Dax Dragster of Godless Wicked Creeps/Johnny Nightmare. However, the amount and calibre of the guests might surprise. Apart from the two above – already quite luminous in themselves – the album features vocal contributions by, for example, Vic Victor of Koffin Kats, Peter Sandorff of Hola Ghost (and ex-Nekromantix) and Vlad Urban of Sick Sick Sinners. Talk about star studded!

Panu De La Rocka manages to find an admirable balance between consistency and songs that fit his guests. For example, Invasion Of The Robots, on which Vic Victors handles vocals, is a decidedly Koffin Kats style track, but still fits in well with the rest of the album. Sure, there is some stylistic dispersion on the album, but Panu’s riffing and vocals – sometimes lead, sometimes backing – tie things together. And of course it helps that most of the guests are in bands that are not light years apart from each other: second wave influenced psychobilly unites most all.

But still, it’s no mean feat.

And then he and his backing musicians pad out the album with a slew of tracks without luminous visitors, which absolutely are no filler in comparison to the tracks adorned by visitors. Sure, the hyper energetic and aggressive Beer, Blood, Rock & Roll (sung by Titch) is an absolute high point of the album – but the wild Night Shift, sung by Panu himself, is of the same calibre.

To top it all off, the album both sounds and looks great. The covers, courtesy of Pascal Millet is very appropriate for the genre. The sound packs punch, but power doesn’t come at the expense of nuance. The details of the slapping bass and the work behind the drumkit can easily be picked out in a mix that isn’t all about the guitars – and even though he plays the guitar, Panu gives his backing musicians enough space to put their personal mark into their performances. The project might bear his name, but Nightmare Reborn isn’t just a Panu De La Rocka show.

I kind of spoiled the final verdict already: this album rocks. I was expecting something good, but I got something great. I’ve been privileged to follow the making of this album as what I’d call a “privileged outsider”, and the ambition, determination, untiring work ethos and energy put into this project truly impressed me. And these can be heard on the album: Nightmare Reborn is a work of love, a tribute to psychobilly, and an album that tries to capture everything great about psychobilly.

And succeeds in doing it.

Visit De La Rocka on their official website, Facebook or Instagram