WILDNESS
“Avenger”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Wildness are a hard rock band from Sweden formed in 2014 releasing four albums to date – ‘Wildness’ (2017), ‘Ultimate Demise’ (2020), ‘Resurrection’ (2021), and ‘Avenger’ emerging in 2025…

…featuring eleven songs across forty six minutes – that’s forty six minutes of hard hitting hard rock with an immense eighties AOR come glam come sleaze come heavy metal feel! Think Poison, Journey, Mötley Crüe, Boston and Van Halen for some kind of sound reference! The bands current line-up consists of drummer Erik Modin, guitarists Adam Holmstrom and Pontus Skold, vocalist Erik Forsberg, and bass player Marcus Sjosund – the bands new album bursting into life with a hundred percent energy courtesy of ‘Wings Of Fire’, the sound of heavy hitting AOR filling the air! Pounding the ground hard, Wildness are lively, upbeat and (rather obviously) on fire as ‘Avenger’ is set on its way, the initial energy burst doubled with the more bombastic ‘Crucified’ blasting a great big fucking hole right through the centre of the planet! The arena rock flavour here is massive, ‘Crucified’ displaying the big, chant style sing a long chorus required to engage an in-concert crowd into participating – and participate they all will by chanting “crucified” as loudly as possible.

A barnstorming brace to grab the attentions of a worldwide audience, ‘Avenger’ marches on with the more melodic rocker ‘Broken Heart’, the band increasing the infectious level to new heights – every listener totally hooked on the hard rock pouring outta Sweden. Hard rock which is far from over, as the album swings by the glorious eighties with ‘Caught Up In A Moment’ highly reminiscent of an evolutionary age when (the aforementioned) Journey and Boston re-wrote rock to bring forth an AOR, arena, hard rock mix – a mix which is still wowing audiences today! The intensity since ‘Avenger’ began has been spot on, Wildness not losing a single listener, and unlikely to do so with addictive songs like ‘Wasted Time’ keeping everyone glued to the album – ‘Wasted Time’ a harder, more punchy affair than everything heard up to this point.

The energy level has been incredible, the band overly energetic as the title song ‘Avenger’ strides in with more pace and urgency than any other song heard so far – not to mention the Mötley Crüe metal edged style of hard rock, Wildness planting one “foot on the monitor” to adopt the classic pose of traditional heavy metal. And by stark contrast, ‘Poison Ivy’ sees the band stroll into balladry, a mellow atmosphere descending upon the album for all of thirty seconds before a very strong mid eighties era Ozzy Osbourne ‘Shot In The Dark’ feel takes over as ‘Poison Ivy’ turns into a hard rocking heavy metal march! I tell ya readers, the longer ‘Avenger’ (the album) has run the more metal it’s become – the band making me eat my words straightaway with the ballad ‘I’ll Be Over You’, the mellowness here inviting every listener to sway from side to side and raise lighters high in the air.

And with more gusto than any other song on offer, ‘Stand Your Ground’ roars outta the blocks at a tremendous speed, Wildness planting both their feet right in the heart of heavy metal territory for this one – every metalhead everywhere welcoming the opportunity for some serious head banging! Now they say the eye of the storm is calm and relatively quiet – quite the opposite to ‘Eye Of The Storm’, the bands “eye of the storm” a bold, heavy hitting ground shuddering bombastic blast of ominous hard rock with nowhere to hide! Every song on ‘Avenger’ (the album) has clocked in at around four minutes in length, paving the way for a fast moving album with little or no time for a breather, the album’s final hurrah ‘Walk Through The Fire’ stepping over into metal territory once more. The pace, power and oomph here is the stuff of traditional heavy metal, Wildness ending a hard rock album very much in metal mode!

Overall, a hard rocking heavy metal edged album full to the brim with infectious, sing a long-able arena rock.

TRACKLIST

Wings Of Fire 
Crucified 
Broken Heart 
Caught Up In A Moment 
Wasted Time 
Avenger 
Poison Ivy 
I’ll Be Over You 
Stand Your Ground 
Eye Of The Storm 
Walk Through The Fire

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