I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of the whole “Oi/Crust” punk movement. The music doesn’t move me at all. When I sat down to review the latest album from Swedish punk/metallers Wolfbrigade, I was pleasantly surprised to hear more of a hardcore sound. The band has elements of Sick Of It All, Nailbomb, ‘ 90s-era Exploited, Biohazard, and even early Motorhead vibes in their music. This made it much more comfortable, and I felt able to write a balanced review.

Wolfbrigade has been around for a long time. They were formed back in 1995 under the name Wolfpack, and Howl From Underground is their 12th LP. We get 12 short/sharp songs that all have immediate impact. Opener Caveman Motherfuck (catchy title!) soon gets underway with full pelt riffing and some fantastic up-tempo drumming from Dadde Starck. The band decided to use a producer on the album for the first time in a long time. As Wolfbrigade themselves explain: “As the songs started to fall into place, we decided to do something we hadn’t done in many years,” explains the band. “For the last decade we’ve recorded, produced and mixed our albums ourselves. This time we wanted to work with someone from outside the band whose work we respect and who we felt would understand what Wolfbrigade is about.”

The producer they used is Lawrence Mackrory (Meshugga/Paradise Lost), and he’s done a fantastic job. The band sounds huge. There are some real standout tracks, including the superb Doomrunner, Born To Rot, Headhunting, and the wonderfully titled Fat Man Hellscape. The title track is my favourite though, absolute carnage. Vocalist Micke Dahl is like a man possessed, barking and spitting out every word. Awesome.

The band explained the process of writing the songs for Howl From Underground: “Rather than building the songs layer by layer, we wanted to capture the band as a single unit, the push and pull that happens when five people are locked into the same moment. There’s a tension in those kinds of performances that’s difficult to recreate any other way. Without a safety net, the focus sharpens and something else takes over. Sometimes the songs begin to take on a life of their own. More than anything, it leaves room for the unexpected. We still work within the same narrow framework that has always defined Wolfbrigade, but we keep pushing against its edges,” asserts the band. “New melodies, new angles, new ways of getting where we’re going.” Among these new angles we may find the almost gothic melancholic melody underpinning When Dogs Cry; the crafty, atmospheric note patterns of Cold War Bootlicker; the long chords and rock-steady surge of Seeking Scapegoats. But each track is so steeped in the workings of the Wolfbrigade grinder, nothing sticks out as wildly diverse or out of place. “For us it’s never about sounding different for the sake of sounding different,” says the band. “If a song feels hungry, if there’s a primitive energy there, then it deserves to exist. That was the feeling we followed throughout the work on Howl From Underground.”

Howl From Underground is a superb record. If you’re a little weary of the punk tag, don’t be. Wolfbrigade easily navigate themselves into the metal/hardcore category. If you love some crusty punk, you’ll already know all about Wolfbrigade. Maybe don’t listen when there’s a full moon, though! AAAAWWWOOOOOO!!!

Howl From Underground is released on Oct 9th via Metal Blade Records.

Buy Here

Author: Kenny Kendrick