Wolves. Agh, they’re everywhere! In the throne room, and now they’ve roamed their way to the north. This Swedish trio make no pretence as to where their influences lie, and they take a very old school approach to things in terms of songwriting and production. Expect a pretty fast and full on aggressive assault, raw and unpolished and with production caked in mud and with plenty of reference to Bathory and early Mayhem. This album is a bit of a dark horse (or should that be dark wolf) – there are some very strong tracks here and an appeal that really didn’t come across to me on the first few listens but after 5 or 6 plays I begin to see this as being a rather good album.
‘13 Sons Of The Devil’ blurts in with no time to waste, the drums are insanely fast and everything sounds pretty damn unpleasant in the good way. There’s a slight deathly edge to this in places and I detect a hint of early Death and a bit of Possessed in the dirty riffage and even the vocal delivery which is sort of a guttural rasp and have that reverb that makes it sound as though they are being spewed out in a hollow, rusty steel tunnel. ‘Hadanard’ slows down the pace and things all get a bit dark and threatening with a hell of a swagger driving this one along.
The riffs are crude and simplistic but nevertheless portray the right sort of atmosphere I look for in black metal. ‘Kingdom Of Wan’ is particularly speed focussed and kicks up a real hellish furore, before slowing down into a fierce and monstrously heavy march layered with some demonic gurgles to add to the whole thing nicely. ‘Wargoat’ is broken up with a slow, ominous pacing that seems to drag and drag before picking back up again for a quick march to the finish line. ‘Ursinnets Begar’ has some razor sharp riffs that sound sick as fuck and the acrid fury of ‘Wolves Of The North’ brings to mind the black thrash stylings of Nifelheim.
‘Rapid Satan’ is a short sharp blast that contains some rather comical lyrics glorifying Satan – all very clichéd stuff indeed and highly unintelligent. This is followed by a heavy metal Am I Evil march to the ‘Rise Of The Antichrist’ that’s another slow-paced, sinister sounding exercise and there’s a bulging bassline ascending from the roots of ‘Ulvhall’ which definitely gives off a threatening aura. Wolves Of The North offer nothing original, but this is a solid album with some great tracks and recommend this to anyone who likes their black metal old school.
http://www.myspace.com/theunholywan
