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Death Wolf: II - Black armoured death

09/04/13 || Ironpants

Hear the wolf howl!

Death Wolf is the side project of Morgan Håkansson (Marduk) where he and his merry friends creates blackened rock or even black punk rock at times, with obvious references to Danzig/Samhain/Misfits. I don’t really like comparing like this, but it is somewhat announced from the band themselves, as they started out as a cover band doing Misfits/Samhain songs under the name “The Devils Whorehouse”, so you can expect several comparisons through the review.

I´m not really sure that I think this is superb, great stuff? Of course it has its high points and those mostly appear where they rush on and punk it up a little. Songs like “World serpent” , “Sudden bloodletter” and “Black armoured death” rams on in a fairly good faster style that is harsh and pretty aggressive. And in those moments, I’m cool with it, stomping my feet and get a bit aroused from the atmosphere presented.

In other songs where the Danzig reference is more than slightly present, it gets a bit off the hook and I catch myself thinking about random shit, like what I would do if I had an cloak of invisibility, or who would win if you put a necrophiliac and a zombie in a locked room?

I like Danzig a lot, and it’s a bit tough living up to at least the vocal parts of Evil Elvis, and the singer in Death Wolf, who goes under the name Maelstrom, isn’t really in that league. But he still pulls it off quite well making a style of his own. Actually from time to time I get a small vibe off Chris Goss in Masters of Reality. And by that I mean that it is more “crisp”, or “tender” if you will, when Maelstrom sings in his clean style. But he can let it rip also, in the faster and harder parts, he lets loose a more roaring kind of vocals. I may be out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that “roaring” is his normal preferred area? This is very apparent in “Lord of putrefaction, where his voice shifts back and forth between these two modes and the harsher vocals always wins these internal battles, as they are more consistent. That song is by the way one of the best songs on the album together with the faster ones and the opening track.

Even if some of the calmer parts are quite good, it is also here the songs fall apart a little. They don’t really carry the amount of power or melody required to make it really take off. The opening track “Noche de Brujas” rolls away in a slow, doomy pace but that song has some kind of bluesy groove that makes it in the clear. The rest of the slower songs sends out some kind of “sleepy” tone that doesn’t really ring my bell. Both “Little black angel” and “Rothenburg” are good examples of this.

All in all, it’s OK, but that’s not really what you want to hear, am I correct? We can say like this…if you’re really into Håkansson’s other works, you can continue listen to those albums and you are not missing out on something. And if you are like me, a bit of a mass consumer and listen around without specific genres, you can surely find some nice tunes on this album, especially if you are into Danzig and Samhain, but even so, it’s not the best release you’ll find… sadly.

6,5

Information
Released: 2013
Label: Century Media Records
Website: www.deathwolf.net
Band
Maelstrom: vocals
Makko: guitars
Morgan: bass
Hrafn: drums

Tracklist
01. Noche de brujas
02. World serpent
03. Lord of putrefaction
04. Darkness of Hel
05. Sudden bloodletter
06. Malice striker
07. Night stalker
08. Luciferian blood covenant
09. Black armoured death
10. Death wolf march
11. Little black angel
12. Snake mountain
13. Rothenburg

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