WOLF
“FEEDING THE MACHINE”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Wolf are a heavy metal band from Sweden formed in 1995 releasing their self titled debut album in 1999. Delivering a blend of eighties style traditional heavy metal inspired by the likes of Iron Maiden, Metal Church and Judas Priest – Wolf released six more albums over the next fifteen years to solidify their position as one of the top metal acts to ever emerge from Sweden. With a recent line-up change, the band are set to celebrate their twenty fifth anniversary since forming with the release of ‘Feeding The Machine’, the bands eighth studio album.

Wolf play a meld of “foot on the monitor”, infectious and melodic, traditional heavy metal – ‘Feeding The Machine’ is packed with twelve highly energetic and bombastic metal anthems, with the opener ‘Shoot To Kill’ a guaranteed fans favourite. Full of pace and power, ‘Shoot To Kill’ is an electrifying opening salvo, with the (albums) second shot ‘Guillotine’, a heavier gallop of traditional heavy metal. Wolf are celebrating twenty five years as a band, and have begun their new album with as much energy and fervour as they did with their self titled debut. ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ brings forth the mid tempo melodic march of heavy metal, proving Wolf are not just a band that delivers heavy hitting fast paced metal. In fact, they touch on the hard rock genre many times throughout this album, the first foray ‘Midnight Hour’ a prime example. Sweden is famous for hard rock and heavy metal bands, Wolf stand on the bridge between these two mighty genres. ‘Mass Confusion’ adds a flavour of the melodic power metal style to the album – Wolf not afraid to incorporate other musical influences into their soundscape, or be pigeon holed into just the one genre.

‘The Cold Emptiness’ bustles into life and shuffles off at a mid tempo pace, with a huge melodic edge. This album is less head bang able and more head nod able, but still has enough power to raise fists high and punch the air in delight. Title song ‘Feeding The Machine’ is more power metal than traditional heavy metal, guitars buzzing like a swarm of bees. It’s infectious, catchy and memorable in equal measures. And the same can be said about the entire album. All hell breaks loose with the blistering pace of ‘Devil In The Flesh’, which enters into the realms of the speed/power metal genre. ‘Devil In The Flesh’ is one of those gems that appear out of nowhere and you find yourself loving it after just a few seconds.

With no sign of the customary power ballad that most modern era European metal and rock albums seem to include, Wolf power on with the heavy thumper ‘Spoon Bender’. Packing a punch worthy of a knock out ‘Spoon Bender’ is big riffing, chunky, and will induce head nodding of an involuntary nature. A rabid nature takes over as ‘The Raven’ continues apace, but with a meaner demeanour. Mildly aggressive and definitely in your face, ‘The Raven’ is more attitudinal than anything that has gone before. ‘Black Widow’ takes the album along the power metal path once more, highly melodic and oh so infectious. Wolf have managed to sway between genres with ease, the album not disjointed in anyway whatsoever. And so to the final song, again with absolutely no sign of a ballad (insert happy emoji here). ‘A Thief Inside’ is an intertwined rock/metal swagger, and rounds off nicely, an album of very good heavy metal.

Overall, a heavy hitting album that draws inspiration from the hard rock, heavy metal and power metal genres into one seamless glorious gallop.

TRACKLIST

Shoot To Kill
Guillotine
Dead Man’s Hand
Midnight Hour
Mass Confusion
The Cold Emptiness
Feeding The Machine
Devil In The Flesh
Spoon Bender
The Raven
Black Widow
A Thief Inside

http://wolf.nu/
https://www.facebook.com/officialwolf/

This review is the property of Iron Mathew and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

---