Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Wolf
Label: Century Media
Released: 2006
Runtime: 47.33
Rating: 4/5
“The Black Flame” is the fourth studio album from Sweden’s Wolf. As its predecessor “Evil Star” already clearly hinted, “The Black Flame” marks a move away from the clichés that Wolf, especially on their first two albums, borrowed far too obviously through riffs from the classic metal bands that basically put metal on its feet in the eighties – and this time they push that move even harder! The blatant, cheap copying of the big bands’ riffs is now down to a mere trace, one we can boil down to the plain common denominator of “influence.” And that’s totally acceptable and doesn’t take anything away from the record’s seriousness. Wolf sound influenced, not cliché anymore! I mentioned the phrase “early eighties.” Anyone who heard “The Black Flame” without first seeing the year it came out would think it was made in 1981 or 1982. The production is a straight shot into the legacy of the sound of the new wave of British heavy metal (“N.W.O.B.H.M.” for short)! The Swedes are known for the fact that, much like the Japanese, they now have a handful of bands in their national ranks that are convincing revivalists of the big bands of the last millennium, across all sorts of genres. In this case Wolf are true N.W.O.B.H.M. revivalists, and yet they’ve managed to peel themselves away from the cliché label, because their riffs get more recognizable and more their own with every new record, which means that on “The Black Flame” Wolf sound the most original they ever have, within their own frame. The band swapped out a guitarist and a drummer, which hardly showed in Wolf’s sound or musical direction. What gives the band’s overall sound its most distinctive stamp is Niklas Stålvind’s unmistakable voice, and probably only if they replaced him would the band go through any bigger stylistic jolts, and not a moment sooner.
“The Black Flame” is loaded with crystal-clear classic riffs that are heaven for fans of any band belonging to the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement. The songs have great “drive” and explosive choruses that at times sound pompously uplifting and especially original, as the masterful chorus of Black Magic proves, with its melancholic, high-vibrato mood that gives you goosebumps without even trying. On top of that, the songs let us revel in straight-up riff aggression, as offered especially by Seize The Night , in the wit of the passages, with the ones caught in The Dead standing out most, and it’s all nicely seasoned with three-part harmonies obsessed with Iron Maiden and superbly forged classic solos, where the use of “hammer-ons” stands out. One of the most beautifully interwoven solo pieces on the record is Make Friends With Your Nightmares.
An interesting observation about the atmosphere the album conjures up is that Wolf sound “villainous” and that, in building that atmosphere, they like to flirt with the legacy of the extravagance of the key bearers of eighties “horror-ology,” like Ozzy Osbourne in the “Bark At The Moon” era and/or Mercyful Fate in the “Don’t Break The Oath” era. That atmosphere of “The Black Flame” effectively permeates the basic form of the arrangements, which lean on the aforementioned new wave of British heavy metal. So: “heavy,” aggressive, “old school,” and then, like the cherry on top of the whipped cream on a fruit sundae, there’s the album’s chilling overall mood.
So everyone who misses the good old sounds of buried and forgotten bands from the early eighties, this record is for you. “The Black Flame” holds the quality level of “Evil Star” in every respect. It’s an equal to it, and so it doesn’t represent any new step for the band that would be groundbreaking. What matters here, though, is the realization that Wolf are getting more and more original with it, which is a most welcome and delightful piece of news.
Line-up
Niklas Stålvind – guitar, vocals
Johannes Losbäck – guitar
Mikael Goding – bass
Tobias Kellgren – drums
Production
Fredrik Nordstrom
Track list
1. I Will Kill Again
2. At the Graveyard
3. Black Magic
4. Bite
5. Make Friends with Your Nightmares
6. Demon
7. Dead
8. Seize the Night
9. Steelwinged Savage Reaper
10. Children of the Black Flame
