Do you remember Metal Church or Merciful Fate? If you have, you know how brutally heavy they are; case in point here with WOLF's 7th release, "Devil Seed". They capture the eeriness and deep spooky tones of the great old bands, adding to its macabre lyrics alternate tunings, heavy rhythm section, blistering guitars and vocals of a mad doctor! Again, Sweden brings classic metal and bashes it over your head.
We start things off with "Overture in C Shark". This brutal little instrumental is beefy and cruel. You don't want to meet this song in a dark alley. "Shark Attack", "Skeleton Woman" and "Surgeons of Lobotomy" breathe lunacy into your speakers. So does the spine chilling solos and heaviness in "My Demon" and "I am Pain". "Back from the Grave" gives a little thrash push and shoves you around some. "The Dark Passenger" speaks for itself in the title alone. Not as dynamic as the latter songs but don't turn the lights off when you hear this one!
Then there’s a little Iron Maiden feel in "River Everlost". This one is pretty aggressive and if Disney had any taste, they would have used this "Frozen" song for that movie. This almost beats "Trapped under Ice". I dig the bass doubling with the guitars in the riff before the solo. Its 37 seconds of some mellow tones had me a bit worried... But at the 38th second all my fears of a great record ending on a slow tune was gone! "Killing Floor" turned my living room into a moshing floor! My kid joined in and my wife ran for cover. The song ends as it began, and they did it beautifully.
Masterfully put together and arranged. I was truly blown away by this record and am now on my way to getting earlier releases to catch up on this incredible metal band. Downside is its only 11 songs deep. Upside is how the music drives and delivers. I give the WOLF pack a 10 for kicking my butt and another 10 for keeping metal real.
These songs are all lessons in the macabre and lessons for those of you who have not yet heard classic horror metal sounds of the 80's.
Tim Duran, HMS
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