Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Powerwolf
Label: Napalm Records
Release: 2017
Rating: 3/5
What slipped through our fingers (for better or worse) in the middle of last summer is obviously determined to come back around. Powerwolf, the German power metallers formed in 2003, released a new studio album last year, »Blessed And Possessed«. They also toured it like crazy all over the world last year, including slots on the biggest festival stages. Unbelievable. A band that, with its sixth album, serves up yet another chewed-over musical recipe with no secrets left after so many years. It’s the poster child for generic, yet it keeps getting skillfully repackaged and, as such, slyly served up to the target audience one more time. Recycling dressed in gorgeously kitschy production and arrangements, bombastic garnish, predictable chants we’ve heard a thousand times. Powerwolf are sounding more and more like Sabaton, or is it the other way around? A person can’t even tell anymore. Powerwolf are thus growing into one of the leading acts of the genre today. They’re still not as cutting-edge as Sabaton, but they’re seriously hot. So hot that Napalm Records found a gold mine in them and decided to release the very same album again at the start of this year, this time bundled with a live album capturing the band’s entire set at the Summer Breeze festival in 2015. Powerwolf played there as the festival headliner.
The label justified the re-release by tacking a »tour edition extension« onto the title, which means you don’t have this edition yet, since it comes with a live album packed in, so you’ll have to buy the album again. That works on the bigger market. In Spain, France, Italy, Germany, though not here, even if one would rather see people listening to new-era power metal than packing out “Balkanijada” gigs. Whatever. A marketing trick for a market where Slovenia is, frankly, dispensable. The re-release also happens to coincide with a new European tour, where Powerwolf share the stage with the Dutch symphonic power metallers Epica as »co-headliners«, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Judging by the size ratio of the two bands, they’re completely level this year, with Powerwolf growing into a bigger and bigger stage attraction. It’s hard to predict how far they’ll reach.
The songs hit ultra-melodic, anthemic, catchy-chorus territory. Instant seduction. The guitar solos are gone. The »Mid eight« passages are fitted with harmonized motifs (melodies in thirds), and everything is subordinated to reaching maximum ultra-bombast and pomp. But apparently that’s how it is today: the old orthodox power metal formula only ignites in combination with a refined choice of stage costumes and set design. An overdose of stage glitz and kitsch. The audience that listens to this kind of music is less demanding, swearing first and foremost by the stage show, with the quality of the actual music pushed into the background, if it matters at all. The band is becoming strictly professional in what it does. Quality-wise it’s a rather meager album, since the content drowns in a surplus of clichés. Still, the arrangements within the compositions broadly stand up credibly, even if they’re copied, and the same goes for the production, which delivers the desired power metal punch from the non-stop galloping riff cavalry of both guitarists and Attila Dorn’s growling.
Powerwolf – Army of the Night (official video):
Line-up
Attila Dorn – vocals
Matthew Greywolf – guitar
Charles Greywolf – guitar
Roel van Helden – drums, percussion
Falk Maria Schlegel – organ, keyboards
Production
Martin Kronlund
Track list
CD 1.: “Blessed & Possessed”
1. Blessed & Possessed (4:42)
2. Dead Until Dark (3:49)
3. Army of the Night (3:21)
4. Armata Strigol (3:59)
5. We Are the Wild (3:41)
6. Higher Than Heaven (3:30)
7. Christ & Combat (3:39)
8. Sanctus Dominus (3:22)
9. Sacramental Sister (4:36)
10. All You Can Bleed (3:44)
11. Let There Be Night (7:19)
CD2.: “Live at Summer Breeze 2015”
1. Lupus Daemonis (Intro) (1:22)
2. Sanctified With Dynamite (4:25)
3. Coleus Sanctus (5:11)
4. Army Of The Night (4:24)
5. Amen & Attack (5:05)
6. Resurrection By Erection (4:46)
7. Armata Strigoi (5:44)
8. Kreuzfeuer (4:13)
9. Werewolves Of Armenia (6:19)
10. In The Name Of God (Deus Vult) (4:13)
11. Blessed & Possessed (5:36)
12. All We Need Is Blood (4:17)
13. Dead Boys Don’t Cry (4:32)
14. We Drink Your Blood (4:46)
15. Lupus Dei (8:07)
