### Wolfp.a.c.k.: I

#### 19/05/11 || Habakuk

“Crushing death metal”, reads the description. Intrigued, I unwrap the ribbon. Will I be crushed be Holland’s mighty metal of dess?

Well first of all, I am crushed by tons of war references. If not debating God and such matter, we get served lyrics about WAR, one shrapnel after another. Creative? No, but it somehow just works with death metal, doesn’t it. So yeah, give me the dive bomber attack, German Wochenschau soundbits, machinegun fire, George Patton quote, and so forth. As long as the music’s good enough to hold my attention, it’s fine by me. And I gotta say, despite coming across as not exactly the most unconvential outfit, Wolfp.a.c.k. man.a.g.e. just that. The means? Simple:

Downtune the E-string to a D-string. Peruse chuggingly and constantly. Get someone in for very deep growls who’s got a good way of gargling “waaarrrrrr” into the mic. Assign someone to double bass drumming. Replace blastbeats by doomy, dragging sections. Write a few pretty bad-ass palm-muted riffs for that. Engage brain autopilot and send heads banging.

That pretty much sums it up. Yeah, I guess I can live with the description “crushing”.

The reason why I’m not yet on a direct train to the Western Front lies in the fact that the drum production is a good deal too weak. Thin hi-hat noise definitely does not krush. The bass could use a bit more exposure as well, but hey, these guys don’t even have a label yet, so I guess criticizing production details is a bit unfair. Another overall complaint would be however that there probably aren’t enough highlights to warrant 12 songs. Yet even with that taken into account, this is a a very enjoyable slab of stripped-down, pounding death metal. I approve and hereby recommend this to anyone who can see himself take a liking in a slower, simpler version of Hail of Bullets with normal death metal vocals.

With a bit of hard work, these guys might one day fill the empty spot between the ultra-dumb paint by numbers death metal of Debauchery & Co and the greats like Asphyx.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Independent
- Website: www.wolf-pack.eu
- Band
- Clint Tillemans: vocals
- Kamiel Meijers: guitars
- Ronald Donkervoort: bass
- Arjen Buijs: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Wolfpack
- 02. When the legions march
- 03. Annihilation
- 04. War
- 05. Your god
- 06. False messiah
- 07. Over the edge
- 08. Built for battle
- 09. War victim
- 10. Ardennen intro
- 11. Ardennen offensive
- 12. Lost & found