Releasing their first Demo (Demo 1) back in 1995, Wolf have come far with a tight following of diehard fans. However, it took them a good 4 years to release their first single ‘In the Shadow of Steel’ and in that same year releasing another single ‘The Howling Scares Me To Death’ followed by their first full length self titled album ‘Wolf’. Four more albums followed including the ever popular ‘Ravenous’ (Voodoo being the first ever Wolf Track I’d heard). But now on their Sixth album ‘Legions of Bastards’ these Swedish bad boys are quite happily staying on the Metal scene.
Yes!! The first track to ‘Legions of Bastards’ is ‘Vicious Companions’ which impressed me straight away with the guitar tomfoolery then the vocals of Niklas just blows me away with the high pitched ‘almost’ a Dave Mustaine thing going on, but much cheesier. The guitar solo just crammed in to perfection with an epic hair metal feel, but most of all the lyrics; “you’re turning my heart into stone, so bad, so cold, you’re turning my heart into stone” is going to be sang at full range with my best vocal ability (waiting for the complaints from the neighbours) I really can’t find anything to criticise on this track.
‘Skull Crusher’ ok, a cracking name, delivering a mix of (to me) a bit of power metal mixed with some Judas Priest, fantastic! Lush guitar riffs aplenty and the bass on this track standing out giving the track depth, my only wish was as much as the drums are quite loud, I’d want them louder still, giving a more brutal feel.
The riff to ‘Full Moon Possession’ and shortly after the lyrics come in, confirms my feelings on Megadeth, another thrashy and high pitched track with drumming to impress even the staunchest, hardcore drummer, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ on the other hand was the first track to get me rocking out. The intro riff dirty and grindy and the chorus, quite unexpectedly blew me away, nothing like I was expecting, a total (impressive) change in direction of what I thought the track would be.
Probably one which I could quite happily give or take is ‘Absinthe’, as catchy as the chorus is, the rest of the track just doesn’t do it justice.
Moving to ‘Hope to Die’ due to the guitar solo right from the start and following that, the group vocals for the chorus bring this one alive, Solo’s all over the show but the middle section solo has to be probably the most impressive of the album, fingers all over the place, and lastly ending the album with ‘K-141 Kursk’ which isn’t the catchiest and not something I would have chosen to end quite a fantastic album with.
‘Legions of Bastards’ is (as I mentioned above) quite a fantastic piece of work. A lot of the tracks proving the band are getting tighter and stronger on a whole, but maybe one or two tracks failed to impress me. But having only listened to it a couple of times there’s room for change. Still if you’re a fan of these Swedish metallers then you MUST buy it.
http://www.myspace.com/wolfheavymetal
