Iceage: Beyondless review - feral punk beyond all bounds

Punk icon Richard Hell adores the impeccably cool Danish band Iceage so much he has written a short essay for their fourth album, Beyondless.

“I can totally imagine myself as a kid lying in my closed-door room in the dark, listening to this band and getting what I need,” Hell writes. “The way a band can make a person feel seen and bring confidence, sometimes even represent an ideal.”

The Great Danes have certainly transformed into something quite special for the follow up to the universally acclaimed Plowing Into the Field of Love in 2014. Elias Bender Rønnenfelt is one of the most literate and distinctive frontmen and lyric writers on the block, who Hell loftily likens to Charles Baudelaire.

The music is also magnificent, fusing singular punk with elements of soul, free jazz and experimental pop. Sky Ferreira guests on Pain Killer, a terrifically catchy horn-driven tune that comes on like The Style Council jamming with The Bad Seeds. On The Day the Music Dies, they plug into a killer riff and couldn't sound more alive. With Beyondless, Iceage have perfected an inimitable blend of elegantly wasted rock.