Nostalgia has gripped the wrist of time and slung every once-angsty teen back into the mid-noughties. There is an ongoing resurgence of beloved emo, alt-rock, post-Hardcore, and Pop-Punk acts flooding stages and fests again. Hopefully, the remaining slots are many because Story of the Year is another to add to the emo revival.
Seattle-based multi-platinum rock band Candlebox has announced its new album, their seventh, Wolves, via Pavement Entertainment. This album is the follow-up to the 2016 album Disappearing In Airports. Lead singer Kevin Martin says, “It comes from where we are as humans right now, and what we’ve become. Yes, there’s beauty in these wolves, but there’s the pack mentality, and that lone wolf mentality on the other side.” also shared a lyric video for the song “My Weakness” and a lyric video as well. Check it out!
Death, taxes, an underwhelming New Year’s Eve and Chicago melodic punk quartet Rise Against delivering the goods. Them’s your guarantees. And it is to the elation of my ears that the latter continues to ring true on eighth album Wolves (Virgin).Continue reading
Blessed & Possessed (Napalm) the sixth studio album by German band Powerwolf opens with a majestically bombastic title-track that is everything you could hope for in a Powerwolf album as the choral vocals just add that extra classical touch to the power metal onslaught. And yes, the melodies are super catchy, like the genre requires. But Powerwolf is not all symphonic bombast; ‘Army of the Night’ really sounds like Sabaton’s combat style, reminding of ‘Ghost Division’, but with far better vocals than Joakim Brodén was then capable of. It is effective in raising both spirits and your heartrate!
On ‘Armata Strigoi’ the riffs are incredibly tight, the melodies have just enough cheese to make this incredibly enjoyable to listen to, and the guitar solo is effective and varied. ‘We are the Wild’ is a Power Metal anthem, as the chorus is perfectly suited to chanting along from the audience. It also features a really nice orchestral break before the solo.
‘Higher than Heaven’ is an up-tempo and highly energetic piece – I couldn’t help but grin madly during this song as the contrast between the fast-paced singing, smooth vocal melody, and pacey music is just immensely pleasing – the slower break does not lose any of the power, but gathers it for the final chorus.
The vocal talents of Attila Dorn are well showcased, in the more battle-oriented songs they sound like a cross between Joakim Brodén and Hansi Kursch, in others, like ‘Let There Be Night’, his voice takes on a very classical quality, with great clarity and vibrato. However, the best parts are the combination of rough and classical, which lends great power to the music and the lyrics.
In case you hadn’t realised yet from the other songs, ‘Christ & Combat’ should make it abundantly clear what the theme of the album is: religion and war, and the lyrics seem to describe some sort of Christian Valhalla. It also has features some excellent bass lines.
While I really love ‘Sanctus Dominus’ for its choral bombast with Latin lyrics and the customary clipped pronunciation, by the time I get to ‘Sacramental Sister’ the religious themes become tiresome with an entire album on the subject hard to swallow
However, the music is fun, the sound is good, and I heartily recommend it to people who love cheesy power metal and have no aversion to the glorification of holy wars and religiousness.
7.0/10
LORRAINE LYSEN