Year: 2026
Label: PED
Psychobilly in Finland has always been a weird subculture in how often it’s barely visible, but still surprisingly big and active. It is rarely featured in music media, and when it is, it’s often somewhat derisively. And yet, the scene has been going on for decades, and even the bigger international names visit these shores from time to time.
In a similar manner, Finland has always had its share of psychobilly bands, but few of them have attained any kind of status outside of the scene. Granted, also, few are the bands who’ve stuck at it for long times and released a considerable discography – most bands seem to put out a few albums and quietly call it a day.
Broomhill Runaways are a bunch of new hopefuls. The musicians aren’t exactly young whippersnappers, but the band is relatively young and their discography short. This is, in fact, their very first release.
This four song EP, clocking in at a mere 12 minutes, is a concise little crash course into the band. But it gets the job done, and gives a good idea of the quartet’s sound: this is classic, timeless psychobilly. Maybe even a bit dime-a-dozen. There’s a definite old school touch to the sound, but where some ten years ago it was all the rage to fully emulate the late 80’s/early 90’s sound (read this as: “make second rate copies of”), Broomhill Runaways simply let their roots proudly show.
This means a crisp guitar tone, slapping bass, generally faster tempos, catchy choruses and macabre songs about insanity – fittingly for a band, who’ve taken their name from a local asylum. There’s no metal, hardcore or US punk style oozin ah’s in the choruses here. There’s not a whole lot of authentic rockabilly, either; this is true third wave psychobilly in the sense that its musical ancestry is in earlier generations of psychobilly more than rockabilly.
Although not only so. Hairy Mature, for example, slows things down to a leisurely blues tromp, complete with bluesy harmonica. Madhouse Rumble features a rather classic hi-octane rock & roll riff. Batshit Crazy, on the other hand, is classic psychobilly all the way through, from the prominent slapping bass to the guitar riff.
Essentially, Straightjacket Psycho N Roll is a good game opener. At this hopefully early stage of their career, Broomhill Runaways’ sound still leans a bit toward the generic. But they do their thing solidly, which at this stage suffices. The songs work, and the energy is good. The EP doesn’t contain any “hit songs”, but all four tracks are perfectly adequate, and show that even if the band’s sound is rooted very traditionally in the conventions of psychobilly, Broomhill Runaways channels them with some capability of variation.
I suppose only time will tell if Broomhill Runaways will join the relatively long list of Finnish bands who release a few albums and fade out, or if they’ll have more longevity. At this point, it’s pointless really to mull about that. However, I earnestly hope that they will at least stick around long enough to record an album – and I have insider info that this is indeed the plan. Because, whilst this EP suffers from a certain lack of distinctive character, it’s got potential. Take this as a foundation to build upon, and a full-length album might be really good.
