WOLFBRIGADE - "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" (2017)

WOLFBRIGADE - "RUN WITH THE HUNTED"
(Running time: 26:51 minutes; 10 songs)
("Southern Lord Recordings"; 2017; CD):

Hey guys, yes, I am back at the regular work up here and so here already now incoming is the first 'really new' post after the (sort of...) 'mandatory' retrospection post on 2017, yes, and so now here you get my record-review on the larger-than-life 2017 masterpiece of/by the absolutely almighty WOLFBRIGADE from Sverige titled "RUN WITH THE HIUNTED", the successor album to/of their 2012 immortal masterpiece "DAMNED" (also released back then via "SOUTHERN LOTRD RECORDINGS"), and it was released at the 28th of april of 2017 and this of course (again) by/through/via "SOUTHERN LORD RECORDINGS". WOLFBRIGADE's "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" features ten new songs in roughly half-an-hour of a total running time, yes, and this would be sort of the only 'critical-point' of it because that's simply not much of a running time anyhow anyway... but WOLFBRIGADE really manage to make up for this with two huge points: (1.) "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" is so massively and 'overwhelmingly' intense that it definitely 'devastatingly' destroys absolutely everything and atomizes de facto everyone in its way in this shortly twenty-seven minutes so that it leaves no questions unanswered and no wishes unfullfilled; (2.) WOLFBRIGADE are simply that incredible damn good, nah, they are that larger-than-life great that this roughly twenty-seven minutes are packed up full with a so high skilled songwriting that beneath the overwhelming intensity and also all the high'n'tight atmosphere, beneath the brutal and yet all the time melodic and diverse massacre an incredible amount of multi-variations and diversity is waiting, enriching and cultivating it all massively and just waiting there to be discovered by all of you outta there. WOLFBRIGADE were founded back then in 1995 as WOLFPACK and they conquered me sort of instantly back then with their massively impressive debut full-length-album "A NEW DAWN FADES" and from then on and on and on and on, all the time, always. In 1999 then they changed from WOLFPACK to WOLFBRIGADE and... continued to conquer me supremely and this also all the time. Their 2012 masterpiece "DAMNED" was (in my book) back then their so far crowning chapter of their impressive career and discography... and now we have 2017 and... nah, sorry, bullshit... we (have) had 2017 and "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" was unleashed at the world, hell yeahr, and I don't know how they did it but they 'at least' hold on to "DAMNED" on the exact same larger-than-life level but I would even go so far to/and say that "RUN WUTH THE HUNTED" even is a step ahead, yes, that totally amazing and absoultely fantastic it is. This is at its core highest intensity Crustcore with some beefy'n'bulky D-Beat roots in it as well as truckloads of devastating (Sverige) Death Metal and just looking at respectively listening to some of the melodic and symphonic guitar leads and also partly because of the nihilistic atmosphere also some Black Metal marks here and there in it, too, yes, and this all done on or from a very, very unique and characteristic stand-alone position with a gigantic and forceful own identity to it all. At a very loose description I would say that if you imagine a very high skilled and 'amazingly' fresh and self-contained and stand-alone mixture out of the glorious old WOLFPACK masterpieces (like "A NEW DAWN FADES", "LYCANTHRO PUNK", and "ALLDAY HELL"), THE EXPLOTED (especially "THE MASSACRE", "BEAT THE BASTARDS", and "FUCK THE SYSTEM"), and DISCHARGE on the one side, yes, and Sverige Death Metal somewhere between AT THE GATES, ENTOMBED, DISMEMBER, and UNLEASHED on the other side, yes, then you do have a pretty good starting description of what to expect of/from WOLFBRIGADE in general and of/from "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" in particular, yes, and fans of the GENOCIDE SUPERSTARS, SKITSYSTEM, and DISFEAR will find here in and with WOLFBRIGADE's "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" surely their new holy grail as well. But with facing that namedropping here and now please keep in mind that WOLFBRIGADE absolutely do their very, very own thing, point and fact. All is done by surely high skilled musicians that/who deliver it all via outstanding songwriting: Forceful, intense, massive, brutal, harsh, stunning, and yet very melodical and also hymnal arranged and 'impressively' playful and soulful, yes, and also beneath the 'surface' of this high-intensity raging massacre it's all very diverse and enriched with fresh ideas and clever subtle enrichments and exciting twists'n'turns all along the ride that grant us 'ongoingly' grapping moments without end that really shine bright and are nothing else but absolutely overwhelming. The same it to say about the all the time incredible sheer exciting and grapping highest intensity and the very intense, tight, and breathtaking atmosphere of all the songs and the whole album. Carried out is this all via razorsharp cutting and sledgehammer-like banging guitars that deliver powerful raging riffing and crushing rhythm work as well as (and especially) stunningly intense and breathtaking atmospheric melody lines and leads'n'solos, yes, and that are marking the songs strongly and heavily and this also for sure for all the right reasons; the pretty much same is to say about the great and very charismatic vokillz that are brutal done 'throaty' shouts that still deliver melodies and anthemic/hymnal lines (verses and Refrains a-like) and that totally (over)shine bright, too. The fast raging and harsh thundering rhythm section then finally tears down every resistance and smashes through everything and everyone, yes, and that's a total wrecking ball going highest skilled to work. The pace of the songs is mostly up-tempo to fast pace but take the time and listen intense and you will find so much exciting and impressive surprises, yes, that will absoultely leave you breathless in all positive ways. My personal favorites? Forget it. The whole damn album is my personal total favorite, period. Strong and thought-provoking lyrics, a great artwork, and a powerful blasting production sound round it all finally up, yes, turning this absolutely into the real deal and the complete package. I know I did this time no real 'ranked list' of 'my top albums of/for 2017' but if I would have done one then WOLFBRIGADE's "RUN WITH THE HUNTED" would be clearly in my top three of/for 2017, yes, and this without a single doubt. I love this band and album. Okay, I think I've said so much all what I had to say so far about WOLFBRIGADE's "RUN WITH THE HUNTED", yes, and everyone into Crustcore, D-Beat, really hard Punk and Hardcore (Punk) musick, and (Sverige) Death Metal (that's slightly blackened) simply definitely and desperately needs to have this absolutely mindblowing and breathtaking surely larger-than-life masterpiece and this (in case you really should not have or even know it) best 'yesterday than today', if you get what I mean. Anyhow, my last words: Get it!!!

(10 of 10 points)

https://wolfbrigadeofficial.wordpress.com/ (-the link to the sort of homepage of the band)

WOLFBRIGADE - "KALLOCAIN" (2017, "RUN WITH THE HUNTED")

WOLFBRIGADE - "DAMNED" (Sverige Crustcore heavyweight champions back in 2012; CD-Release via "SOUTHERN LORD")

WOLFBRIGADE - "DAMNED"
("Southern Lord"; CD):

"THE SOUND OF THUNDER", so goes the intro shouting to this album, and it couldn't had been chosen any better, period. But one after another. They are back, the amazing silverbacks of metallic sinister brutal Crustcore, roaring down to us from the heights of Sverige. I discovered this band fifteen or more or something like this years ago, some time around 1996 or so, when they were known and around as WOLFPACK and released their brilliant masterpiece full length debut album "A NEW DAWN FADES". And with their great combination out of brutal and aggressive, yet very melancholic-depressive and very melodic and atmospheric Crustcore mixed with tight, heavy, harsh, yet catchy, melodic and overall damn intense Old School Sunlight Sverige Death Metal they got me promptly. It was exactly what I was looking for, or something like this you can surely say it. All done with some sort of a very few music-wise connections to what the almighty THE EXPLOITED used to do back then when they released their absolute masterpiece album "BEAT THE BASTARDS", which means a cultivated blending of Punk, Hardcore and Metal, but WOLFPACK took it much further and had always been a Crust not a Punk or a Metal band and also by far more atmospheric, and they were also always and right from the start one hell of a unique band. Never heard such stuff before and it directly hit me like a sledgehammer straight in my face. Really a statement of an album, still today if not even more than yesterday respectively back in the days. From then on I was hooked up, and when the almighty "LYCANTHRO PUNK" was released I found something like my holy grail. Even more intense and brutal, sinister and aggressive, yet atmospheric, meldoic and catchy and one hell of an outstanding groundbreaking album. A real larger than life album, period!!! The next one of them for me was their classic "ALLDAY HELL", more brutal and by far more Crust than ever before, also with a back then new singer on the microphone. Back then in the booklet of this album they also announced that they would be from then on being playing under a new name, the one of WOLFBRIGADE. So, like you all can see, I love this band and loved this guys right directly from the start for me with them. But despise their greatness and what they always meant to me WOLFPACK (today WOLFBRIGADE) had anyhow always been a band that I only managed to follow loosely back in the days. And when they were renamed to WOLFBRIGADE I somehow lost them totally out of sight, don't ask me why. Maybe it was not at least caused or at least benefitted strongly by the long decade that past in or over or during which I nearly listened to no (new) Crustcore at all (why ever), or what ever, I don't know it, I can't say it, I just know and I just can say that this is the very first WOLFBRIGADE album I've ever listened to and that I call my own. This turned out to be a terrible mistake, that I lost them so drastically out of sight. Hm, but as if I didn't know it already anyway before... So, yes, saw it, remembered them and what they meant to me, decided, grabbed it, bought it... was totally blewn away from it right from the start, awesome, period!!! After my only and last experiences had been with them in their WOLFPACK days with their three albums "A NEW DAWN FADES", "LYCANTHRO PUNK", and "ALLDAY HELL", I have to admit that I can only draw lines back to this masterpiece groundbreakers of albums. But be sure that I will try everything to make clear that this album stands by and for its very one, totally, and that I will try my best to make this clear and work this out as good as anyhow possible. With drawing lines back to the mentioned albums then I can say that this very new one blends perfectly "A NEW DAWN FADES" with the "ALLDAY HELL" and cultivates it all with some intense atmosphere and sheer intensity like on "LYCANTHRO PUNK". That means that it melts together perfectly intense and furious raging brutal Crustcore with great aggressive yet pretty melodic Sverige Death Metal and cultivates it all with a tight morbid, melancholic, sinister, yet forceful atmosphere, and all done for at least one hundred percent unique and totally stand alone, like the shining and true original they simply are. Ah, and just for the record, clearly that the Crustcore takes the lead, not the Death Metal. But don't get it wrong, because "DAMNED" is everything but a ripp off of the mentioned old albums, no, it's just that you can take the description based on a comparision as well as a connection between or combination of the three old masterpieces of them as a loose coordination system in which you can find "DAMNED", but the new one is totally fresh, new, alive-lively, and in a not trendy but all self-contained meant sense totally up to date. The songwriting is just great, totally intense and grapping and mercyless heavy forward pushing, interesting and just outstanding shining great, the songs are full of great suprises and amazing little big twists and turns that you wouldn't have expected in this intense inferno of sheer metallic Crustcore brutality, and while the pace of the songs is mostly a surely pure high speed raging one, it's yet also in the right places and at the right time a heavy groovin' more down paced mid tempo smashing bloody hammer aimed directly at your face to break it completly through. The music is marked to perfection and to the very peak of it by the amazing stand alone guitar work, that covers from brutal slashing riff assaults, no matter if in furious high speed or in brickwall style smashing groove style a total blast, to atmospheric tight intense sinister, dark, desperate and sharp guitar leads, totally a fucking shining and intense affair, and with great solos ending, really sticking to and in your head stuff, the guitar playing covers everything and this outstanding great, totally amazing, and is really in a fantastic way marking the songs heavily and strongly, and totally intense it is like fuck. Then there are the pretty guttural and throaty, deep and rough and tough and pretty pissed off and raw shouted, damn charismatic lead vocals, they really stick to your head and they drive the lyrics in their like a skrew, and this without mercy and without regrets. Next is the sawing and shredding and heavy buzzing and hard rumbling bass playing, really great. And all is backed up by the thundering forceful heavy brutal D-Beat styled yet pretty nicely varying drum work, it gives it all the tight and heavy, brutal and bulky, very beefy, yes, the stoic but yet also pretty diverse and by all means damn necessary backbone. Thumbs up through the roof for this all. The musicians are incredible total in command of their instruments and of what they are doing, and, like already mentioned above, their songwriting skills are even better. Better than this it won't be, point and fact. The lyrics are also great, cover a wide distance, from battle themed anthems to tributes to Charly Manson, the artwork is simple and pretty ''smal'' but still really great (and much darker than the scanned cover picture above may tells to you the way my scanner did it), and the powerful production sound makes it all damn round. Their new label seemed at first sight a little bit strange in the sense of untypical for their style of music, but who cares, "SOUTHERN LORD" is a great label and they did here a great job and so why should I care about my own wrong exceptions. This one is highly recommended by me to you, one of the very best albums of 2012 and it's so damn great that they are back and even more that WOLFBRIGADE are back on my radar finally, and I lazy bastards won't let them go out there again. Brilliant and amazing!!! And yes, this is really "THE SOUND OF THUNDER" and nothing less. Get it!!! (10 of 10 points)
(http://www.facebook.com/lycanthropunks)
(I think that also a LP version of this should be released, so keep your eyes open for it if you want your dose on vinyl.)