What are the first things that come to mind when you think about heavy metal music? I’ll give you a moment to consider. Are you done? Good. If you happened to come up with “Romania,” “Catholicism” “and “werewolves” as your answers, which I’m sure most of you did, then you’ll probably be intrigued by the band I’m reviewing this week: Powerwolf.
Powerwolf has been around since 2003 spreading their unique brand of mildly gothic power metal. Their most recent album, “Blood of the Saints,” is possibly their best one yet, or at the very least the catchiest.
The album starts off the way anyone would expect a band like Powerwolf to begin an album — some good old-fashioned bombastic Latin chanting mixed with orchestral keys, pipe organ and militaristic drums. This leads into the awesome and hilariously titled “Sanctified with Dynamite.” The riffing on this song and on the album as a whole is kind of fantastic, and the tone of the guitars is really good.
They also do a good job in this song and a few others of using the old, reliable “loud-quiet-loud” dynamic (in the case of this song: loud verse, quiet pre-chorus, loud chorus). This adds to the overall epic feel of their music which, combined with ridiculously catchy choruses, makes for a really fun listening experience.
Powerwolf has gotten the whole catchy chorus thing down to a science, with each one being memorable and fun to sing along to. After a couple of listens, there’s no doubt that you’ll find yourself humming the choruses to “We Drink Your Blood” and “Murder at Midnight” whether you like it or not. The musicianship is good as well, with some great riffs, a couple of memorable guitar solos, and adequate drumming. But what really make this band unique are the keys and the vocals.
The pipe organ-style keyboards throughout the album are done exceedingly well and add that extra layer of creepiness to every song. The vocals are mostly interesting because the singer has a rather gruff baritone voice as opposed to the usual high tenor voices with lots of falsetto that you generally find in power metal.
Stylistically, the album is very power metal but with their usual gothic twinge. It feels sort of like if you mixed Sabaton with Cradle of Filth and then threw in some Iron Maiden riffs every now and then just to even things out. A few of their songs definitely rely on the gothic metal aspect a bit more. “Night of the Werewolves” has a Type O Negative vibe to it which adds a bit of variety to their usual style. The lyrics are their usual fare of werewolf lore mixed with bits of Catholic religious stuff here and there.
It’s been questioned a lot whether the band is satanic or Catholic; the answer seems to be basically neither, as the various members of the band have equally varied religious beliefs. They mostly cover the Catholic aspect because they find it interesting and it makes for good lyrics rather than because of any direct support or opposition to the religion itself.
This is probably the best work the band has put forth yet, and if you’re a fan of gothic metal, power metal, metal in general, or just want some good Halloween music, I’d definitely recommend them. One could question how they can keep this very peculiar thematic gimmick going much longer but they don’t seem to be deterred or out of ideas for awesomely cheesy werewolf-related lyrics, so I think it’s safe to say that Powerwolf is here to stay.
Four Out of Five Stars
Powerwolf has been around since 2003 spreading their unique brand of mildly gothic power metal. Their most recent album, “Blood of the Saints,” is possibly their best one yet, or at the very least the catchiest.
The album starts off the way anyone would expect a band like Powerwolf to begin an album — some good old-fashioned bombastic Latin chanting mixed with orchestral keys, pipe organ and militaristic drums. This leads into the awesome and hilariously titled “Sanctified with Dynamite.” The riffing on this song and on the album as a whole is kind of fantastic, and the tone of the guitars is really good.
They also do a good job in this song and a few others of using the old, reliable “loud-quiet-loud” dynamic (in the case of this song: loud verse, quiet pre-chorus, loud chorus). This adds to the overall epic feel of their music which, combined with ridiculously catchy choruses, makes for a really fun listening experience.
Powerwolf has gotten the whole catchy chorus thing down to a science, with each one being memorable and fun to sing along to. After a couple of listens, there’s no doubt that you’ll find yourself humming the choruses to “We Drink Your Blood” and “Murder at Midnight” whether you like it or not. The musicianship is good as well, with some great riffs, a couple of memorable guitar solos, and adequate drumming. But what really make this band unique are the keys and the vocals.
The pipe organ-style keyboards throughout the album are done exceedingly well and add that extra layer of creepiness to every song. The vocals are mostly interesting because the singer has a rather gruff baritone voice as opposed to the usual high tenor voices with lots of falsetto that you generally find in power metal.
Stylistically, the album is very power metal but with their usual gothic twinge. It feels sort of like if you mixed Sabaton with Cradle of Filth and then threw in some Iron Maiden riffs every now and then just to even things out. A few of their songs definitely rely on the gothic metal aspect a bit more. “Night of the Werewolves” has a Type O Negative vibe to it which adds a bit of variety to their usual style. The lyrics are their usual fare of werewolf lore mixed with bits of Catholic religious stuff here and there.
It’s been questioned a lot whether the band is satanic or Catholic; the answer seems to be basically neither, as the various members of the band have equally varied religious beliefs. They mostly cover the Catholic aspect because they find it interesting and it makes for good lyrics rather than because of any direct support or opposition to the religion itself.
This is probably the best work the band has put forth yet, and if you’re a fan of gothic metal, power metal, metal in general, or just want some good Halloween music, I’d definitely recommend them. One could question how they can keep this very peculiar thematic gimmick going much longer but they don’t seem to be deterred or out of ideas for awesomely cheesy werewolf-related lyrics, so I think it’s safe to say that Powerwolf is here to stay.
Four Out of Five Stars
RSS Feed