Wolfbrigade: Life Knife Death
Metal Blade Records
LP | CD | DL
Out Now
7/10
Since the 1990s, Scandinavia has become a hub for extreme music, whether that’s black metal, melodic death metal, D-Beat or a myriad of other sub-genres of sub-genres. With Life Knife Death, Wolfbrigade’s 11th full length, they push their incendiary punk rock vision ever onwards.
Sean Millard sets off on his own D-Beat Odyssey in the hope of a return to form.
In the beginning, as with all things, there was Motörhead.
It can’t be a coincidence that Stoke-on-Trent, the birthplace of Lemmy, also spawned Discharge in 1977. They took Motörhead’s Overkill drum pattern and made a career out of it.
There must be something in the Wedgwood.
In turn, Discharge, alongside Antisect and Amebix, inspired a generation of UK crusty tykes like Deviated Instinct, Doom and Icons of Filth to make it muddy and create a clatter.
Around the same time, across the North Sea, Sweden was forging their own D-Beat destiny with Anti Cimex and Driller Killer.
By the time we get to the mid-90s, an entire scene is beginning to coagulate around Disfear, Avskum, Skitsystem, Totalitär, Wolfpack and a couple of years later, Martyrdöd.
By 2004, Wolfpack had become Wolfbrigade, had released five brilliant LPs altogether and were bored. They went on hiatus until 2007, when the first of a run of three highly recommended reformation albums was released: Prey To The World.
Comalive and Damned followed, before another break, this time returning in 2017 with Run With The Hunted and The Enemy: Reality.
The last two albums were a bit disappointing. They lacked the staying power of the rest of the band’s catalogue. They veered too far into thrash metal territory, especially on The Enemy: Reality – far enough in that direction to be a turn off. The production was a bit shinier, the riffs were more metal than punk and there were one too many sparkly guitar solos for my liking.
A dear friend sarcastically suggested it sounded more like Anthrax than Wolfbrigade. He was exaggerating, but it’s clear what he meant.
I’m not one for holding evolution against a band, but you come to Wolfbrigade expecting a very specific thing; D-Beat Lycanthro Punk. They’ve made a rod for their back by creating some of the genre’s finest moments in the past, so there’s a weight of expectation inextricably linked to any new release.
So it was with some trepidation that I pre-ordered Life Knife Death. This could go either way. I was wobbling. They had left Southern Lord and signed to Metal Blade.
Things weren’t looking good for a less-thrash offering.
Geep.
It doesn’t start well. Immediately, a blistering guitar solo sinks my heart.
But hang on; it doesn’t return, and the rest of opening track Ways To Die is delivering what I want… and then Disarm Or Be Destroyed does that surging guitar bending thing that makes my heart sing…
Aside from another ropey solo in the middle of the album’s title track, we’re proceeding really well. The production is raw, there are no cringey thrash breakdowns and we’re already a third of the way through the album’s supersonic 27 minute runtime.
A Day In The Life Of An Arse is, despite its title, a really great track. Ignore another f**king solo towards the end – someone tell Erik or Jocke – not sure who’s responsible – that their twiddles are unnecessary… please. Thankfully, fingertip acrobatics are kept short enough to be forgivable – but the songs would be so much stronger without them.
Unruled And Unnamed is vintage Wolfbrigade. Lightning fast, strong riffs and no let-up. It’s the track of the LP so far.
The mid-paced Skinchanger employs another climbing lead line and some experimentation with changing rhythms, which actually works really well, and finishes Side One on an interesting high.
Your God Is A Corpse could come from any of the first three reformation albums. Again the climbing lead lines lift the song between Micke’s spitting bursts of growling bile.
We drop down the pace a bit for Nail Bomb: “Hear the sound of breaking skin; Your day has come, I’m coming in…” It’s anthemic. I imagine it’ll become a highlight of the live set, with the fist-pumping repetition of the chorus.
A pick slide skids us into a great rhythm guitar riff and the oddly unsettling descending lead line of Cyanide Messiah. Another one that sounds just like what you’ve come for.
Mayhem Mongrel is bludgeoning. The dynamics of the second half of the song distinguish it from everything else we’ve been brilliantly browbeaten by thus far.
Sea of Rust is the capable closer. The instrumental Age of Skullfuckery follows, but is purely an atmospheric thirty second fade-out to end the album.
Life Knife Death by Wolfbrigade
Barring the odd incident of bizarrely unsuitable and needless soloing, Life Knife Death is a return to form for Wolfbrigade.
Don’t get too hung up on the guitars, on the odd occasion they’re there, they’re gone before they arrive. I’m only harping on about them because they seem such an odd aesthetic choice for a band this far into their career and who really know what they’re doing otherwise.
Fundamentally I’m excited by Life Knife Death. It’s a really good album. It’s not Allday Hell, In Darkness You Feel No Regret or Comalive, but does it need to be?
It kicks ass more than virtually anything else that’s landed on my doormat this year.
Speaking of which, my copy came from Evil Greed. It’s a limited orange and red splatter vinyl, which is, of course, a thing of beauty. The sound is clear, heavy and raw. The gatefold sleeve opens to expose a huge moody band portrait. It’s a nice thing.
Momentus, even.
I hope they tour properly to support it. I’ve still never seen them live and I’d love to – these songs will work really well in that setting – but so far, no UK dates have been announced.
In the meantime, pick up a copy – or at least download it; it blasts, it bludgeons and it blows your cobwebs to kingdom come.
Wolfbrigade are back. Embrace them. Their bark is on a par with their bite.
~
Wolf Brigade: Life Knife Death on Bandcamp
All words by Sean Millard
Dispatches from The Vinyl Vault Substack
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