Wolf - The Black Flame

*=Staff's pick	I Will Kill Again At The Graveyard* Black Magic* The Bite Make Friends With Your Nightmares* Demon The Dead Seize The Night Steelwinged Savage Reaper* Children Of The Black Flame*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Niklas Stålvind	Vocals
Tracks	10	Niklas Stålvind	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	Johannes Losbäck	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Mikael Goding	Bass
Release	25 Sept. 2006	Tobias Kellgren	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, RAM

There is an easy way to define how heavy metal should sound, and that is with the band Wolf. With The Black Flame the Swedes release their fourth album since their self-titled debut from 2000. What's new under the sun this time is that Tobias Kellgren on drums is new in the band and session/live guitarist Johannes Losbäck has become a full-time member.

Wolf provide a driving force with their music, and they know their way around of how to carefully place the riffs in their songs. As always with Wolf, the songs are filled with catchy hooks and leads but with The Black Flame it seems like that the band has matured. The sound is darker and softer, although still with an apparent raw sense, I don't know if it is because Fredrik Nordström has produced the album but I get the feeling that Wolf has sound-wise moved closer to the band Dream Evil.

The album starts with the straight forward song I Will Kill Again in classic Wolf manner, and the band recently recorded a video for this song as well, something to look out for later on. They still have a lot of the heavily Iron Maiden influenced guitars in them, although they seem to have moved away from that and are more and more developing a sound of their own. However, with the songs The Bite and Demon they have some pure and classic Maiden guitars featured in there, plain and simple as that. And that continues also somewhat with Make Friends With Your Nightmares, it is one of the the songs that make the most lasting impression on the album and if it hadn't been for the fact that it slows down with the chorus it would have been close to fantastic instead of just being good, nevertheless it is a great Iron Maiden pastiche.

The vocals from Niklas Stålvind, which are of the high-pitch kind, feel more stable now and it seems like he has got control over his voice and there is a good performance from the entire band on The Black Flame. With the last two songs, Steelwinged Savage Reaper and Children Of The Black Flame, they saved their best until last. Steelwinged Savage Reaper is a faster and more aggressive song in classic Judas Priest fashion, and with a slower and a song being more varied as with Children Of The Black Flame it becomes a powerful piece.

To sum it up, some songs could have used a bit more of power in them. Although, in likeness with Iron Maiden, Wolf has one strength that should be respected. Every song contains a guitar part, might it be the lead, solo or harmony part, that is worth listening to. Even if the song in itself might not be top notch, the parts I just mentioned are.

See also review of: Devil Seed , Ravenous , Black Wings , Evil Star

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	5	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Thomas