BLACKWULF
“SINISTER SIDES”
Album Review By Dark Juan

9/10

HOW HAVE I NOT COME ACROSS THIS BAND BEFORE? I am a shocking disgrace to metal and should be disciplined. This is Blackwulf of Oakland, California. Sinister Sides is the name of this second long player for Ripple Music. It’s also rather wonderful. It also has the fantastic Geof O’Keefe of Pentagram and Bedemon guesting on it. It’s high quality stoner rock, mixed with a few influences from the late 60s and the 70s. What do they sound like? They sound like hot desert nights and mezcal. They sound like a heavily armoured groove machine, painted matt black and spitting lead from firing ports on the sides as it grinds inexorably across the battlefield. It’s skulls and crossbones on the back of denim jackets, blue stonewashed flared jeans, Marlboro hanging from the mouth and a bottle of Lone Star beer at 3am, when the jukebox is slamming and you know you have to be up for work in a couple of hours but you just can’t quit. It’s what Wolfmother would sound like on Quaaludes and without an afro’ed hyperactive pixie fronting them.

It’s bloody good stuff then. What are the highlights? The opening track Gate Of Sorrow sets the tone for the album, fuzzed out bass leading into a kick ass guitar riff (such a sexy riff!) and then the band hits the gas…. This is rock as it should be played. There’s melody, there’s riffs I’m crying about because I didn’t write them first, there’s the perfect stoner fuzz bass sound. It’s well produced, it’s well written and I’m carried along by it all in a purple frothy wave of enthusiasm (NOT chemically induced, unless you count the Breton cider I am drinking) until something horrible happens. There’s a ballad. Why in the name of all that is holy do metal bands do this to their poor fans? Singer Alex’s voice can carry it but it is needless and completely ruins the flow of the record. Bad Blackwulf!

Thankfully, apart from naughty ballads which don’t work, every song on here is a magnificent beast of chugging guitars, growling bass and powerful drums and (this being my major bugbear with rock and metal) a singer who has power, control and an engaging voice. Alex sounds great and his vocals fit the music like Dave Wyndorf fits Monster Magnet. They even, and this is something special I’m saying here, do a very good cover of Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love. Not many people can carry that song off. Blackwulf turn it into a stoner anthem par excellence, by dint of not messing with it too much. Well done, gentlemen.

Other highlights are Battle Lines, with it’s very Black Sabbath feel and choppy riffing, The Tempest which just oozes attitude and the title track Sinister Sides being that rarest of things, a song that isn’t pompous and overblown even though it is the centrepiece of the album.

God I love this record. I’ve listened to it that many times I’ll be whistling it when waiting for the ferryman to take me across the Styx. Where did I put my battle jacket? I need to see whether there is room for a Blackwulf patch on it. In between Wolfmother and Kyuss, which, interestingly is where I would place what this magnificent bunch of bruisers sound like. Buy this record. Dark Juan commands you.

Thank you please.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System gives Blackwulf a horrifically stoned 9/10. That’s enough blood to cause the invasion of a banana republic by a first world country concerned about human rights violations. It would have been ten if it wasn’t for that sodding ballad!

Blackwulf are:
Vocals – Alex Cunningham
Guitar – Pete Holmes
Bass – Scott Peterson
Drums – Dave Pankenier
Guest guitar – Geof O’Keefe

TRACKLIST

Gate Of Sorrow
Sinister Sides
Waiting On Tomorrow
Dead To The World
Blind To Fate
The Tempest
Sunshine Of Your Love
Battle Line

https://www.facebook.com/blackwulfusa/
https://www.blackwulfusa.com/
https://www.ripple-music.com/

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