THUNDERMOTHER – Dirty & Divine

Reborn, revitalised and ready to rock ‘n’ roll, Thundermother are back with a deafening bang.

Two years on from the release of their last studio album Black & Gold, the Swedish quartet have completed work on a follow-up and are primed to explode all over again. A blistering onslaught of loud, proud and groovy hard rock, Dirty & Divine marks the start of a new era for Thundermother and the recorded debut of two new members: frontwoman Linnea Vikström Egg and drummer Joan Massing. Bigger, bolder and more dynamic than ever before, the Swedes return as an upgraded and remotivated force.

“Oh my god. The new girls bring everything!” says founding Thundermother guitarist Filippa Nässil. “Linnea is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. I first asked her to join before I asked Guernica (Mancini, former TM singer) to join, eight years ago. So she has always been my first pick. I’m thrilled that she said yes this time. Then we searched Europe for a drummer, and we found her in France. Joan is a fucking beast on the drums! It just makes our music so much tighter and groovier. We were immediately better and more powerful live, so we decided to record this album live in the studio.”

Dirty & Divine also welcomes back bassist Majsan to the fold, after a brief hiatus. Filippa Nässil is thrilled to have her back, holding down the bottom end while the guitarist scorches through her repertoire of unstoppable riffs and incendiary licks.

“Majsan brings a real rock ‘n’ roll vibe to the band,” she enthuses. “She’s one-take tight in the studio, and she brings that fat, thick sound that we need. She brings the thunder to Thundermother!”

Thundermother have always been committed to the electrifying euphoria of real, organic rock ‘n’ roll. Over the course of 15 years and five widely acclaimed studio albums, they have firmly established themselves as one of the most vivacious and vital hard rock bands around, with a never-say-die spirit and collective charisma that underpin everything they do. These women are rock ‘n’ roll diehards, and Dirty & Divine takes that ethos through to its logical conclusion. From the lissom swagger of the bluesy opener So Close, to the turbocharged tyre-burner of closer American Adrenaline, the sixth Thundermother album crackles and fizzles with gritty authenticity and unstoppable passion. For Filippa and Linnea, their newly forged partnership has been an unequivocal success.

“We’ve been working on this a long time, maybe a year and a half,” says Filippa, who was pregnant during the Dirty & Divine recording process and is now a Thundermother for real. “As soon as Linnea came into the band we started sending demos to each other, and we did loads of writing, which was great, because she’s a fantastic songwriter! I was sending her the music and she was sending me these amazing lyrics and melodies. It’s been fun to work with someone that good! On the last album we had outside songwriters because we didn’t have any energy in the band, but now I can just send Linnea music and then just kick back when she sends lyrics and melodies that just crush the song.”

Due for release on February 7, 2025, Dirty & Divine is the perfect, pugnacious showcase for a new, improved Thundermother. Powered by Joan Massing’s unstoppable drumming and blessed with the soulful, heavy rock splendour of Linnea Vikström Egg’s powerhouse vocals, every one of the album’s ten, sweat-soaked gems is an instant anthem. Meanwhile, that decision to record the new material live in the studio has reaped its own rewards. Dirty & Divine is the sound of a kickass rock ‘n’ roll band doing it for real, and loving every raucous second.

“You’ve still got the same Thundermother feeling, with my guitar playing and all of that,” says Filippa. “It’s still got a ‘70s vibe, but the melodies are catchier and the vocals are obviously different. We never stand still. I think this is the best album we’ve made so far, and I’m very picky! [Laughs] We recorded it in Copenhagen, with Soren Andersen producing again, and we recorded eight songs in four days. So this was the quickest recording we’ve ever done, and the best outcome! We rehearsed a lot, bashed the songs out in a few days, and did the vocals at home with Chris Laney from Pretty Maids. Linnea and Chris work so well together, they’re a great team.”

“Of course I’m biased and I’ve lived with the songs for a long time, but I feel like all the songs have a purpose,” says Linnea. “The obvious point is that there’s a new singer and a new drummer, which means there’s a new sound. I have my way of writing and my way of hearing melody, so I think the songwriting is sounding better too!”

“This is our third album with Soren, and he really wanted to do it again!” Filippa notes. “He’s so busy as a producer that he usually can’t take on any bands, but he always wants to do Thundermother. A new thing for this album is we’ve done an analogue mix, so the whole record is analogue. No triggered drums or any of that shit. We have the best drummer and she has the best drums, so we want people to hear them!”

With its immaculate, vibrant production, uproarious individual performances and never-ending avalanche of enormous, gleaming hooks, Dirty & Divine is guaranteed to thrill devoted fans, while also converting many more to Thundermother’s irresistible cause. But while they retain everything that made them such a potent force in the past, they have also used the new album as an opportunity to embrace a more diverse array of subject matter.

“Basically, this album is quite different from the previous Thundermother albums, at least in terms of themes,” says Linnea. “It’s much more mature, I think, and the subjects are very diverse. Obviously I wasn’t part of the songwriting process with the previous line-up, but the subject matter has definitely deepened. This album has everything. We have songs about falling down, getting back up again and never giving up. We have a song that is a happy sex song! It’s not sexy, it’s just happy! [Laughs]”

“One song is about going with your dad to a concert,” grins Filippa. “There’s a song about the love of loud amps and AC/DC! It’s called Can You Feel It, and it’s about when you feel a powerful chord through a Marshall stack and how happy that makes you feel.”

“We also have one angry song, which is quite political. There’s another song about being on the road and feeling numb to everything, which we’ve all been through! It’s a real mixture. We put a lot of time into writing lyrics that we believe in, and I’m super proud of how it all turned out.”

Not just a triumphant return but a complete rock ‘n’ roll reset, Dirty & Divine is the exhilarating masterpiece that Thundermother have long threatened to make. It is an adrenalin-soaked salute to the magic of big riffs and razor-sharp melodies, performed by an electrifying, four-woman force with joy in their hearts and world domination still firmly on the

Tracklist:

01 – So Close
02 – Can’t Put Out The Fire
03 – Speaking of the Devil
04 – Feeling Alright
05 – Take The Power
06 – I Left My License in the Future
07 – Dead Or Alive
08 – Can You Feel It
09 – Bright Eyes
10 – American Adrenaline

Line-Up:
– Filippa Nässil (Guitar)
– Linnéa Vikström (Vocals)
– Joan Massing (Drums)
– Majsan Lindberg (Bass)