Wolf - Devil Seed

Published August 26 2014

*=Staff's pick	Overture In C Shark Shark Attack Skeleton Woman Surgeons Of Lobotomy My Demon I Am Pain Back From The Grave* The Dark Passenger River Everlost Frozen Killing Floor

Genre	Heavy Metal	Niklas Stålvind	Vocals
Tracks	11	Niklas Stålvind	Guitar
Running time	47 Min.	Simon Johansson	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Anders Modd	Bass
Release	25 August 2014	Richard Holmgren	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Jens Bogren
Similar artists	---

Swedish metallers Wolf has always seemed to lurk somewhere in the shadows and has never really made it all the way to the greater stages. The self titled album from 2000 had great impact on me and I instantly knew that this was a unit to be reckoned with. Six albums and a number of lineup changes later I'm still under the impression that that effort is something extraordinary, but I also feel that the band hasn't really been able to hit those high standards again.

Although playing traditional based heavy metal in the veins of the eighties, I believe that they still have their own specific sound. This type of music may not have been especially rewarding, but at the end of the day they have nevertheless stayed true to their design and seem to not fear any kind of adversities. When you set your teeth into a Wolf record, you pretty much know in advance what you will get and as far as I'm concerned the band hasn't seemed to put much effort into changing things significantly with this new record either.

It's pretty driven heavy metal, yet without really massive expressions and I think that Wolf doesn't possess the power to climb up to the upper regions of heavy metal and stay put on the valid side. The songs are generally pretty all right, but I rarely feel that they reach a really satisfactory level and a few of them turns out sort of vapid eventually. The overall production lacks some pulverizing power, which often is the case in terms of Wolf's products and I indeed think that Bogren should have forced the band to put more strength, energy and aggression into this album to make it more intense and vigorous, which in my point of view would have generated in a greater experience in total.

Although I personally have my doubts about this record's magnitude and am looking for something additional to make my money's worth, I still believe that hardcore fans should not worry the least of the outcome of Devil Seed, because this release is definitely authentic and it also follows the fixed target created over a decade ago.

See also review of: Ravenous , The Black Flame , Evil Star , Black Wings

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	5	5	5	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe