VARG

Deriving their name from the Norwegian/Swedish meaning “wolf”, being influenced (by their own admission) by “wolves” and containing a number of songs about … you’ve guessed it, wolves, ‘Wolfskult’ (roughly translating as “wolf worship”) comes only a year after their debut, ‘Blutaar’, and I’ll happily state right from the outset, that the Bavarian quintet have undeniably created one untamed and infectious monster of a second album. Album opener ‘Jagd’ (meaning hunting) draws you in with the sound of feet walking through a leafy ground, halting each time wolves howl menacingly in the distance, before said mystery person, clearly bricking it, audibly legs it through some forest, being pursued (and probably eaten) by the ever nearing wolves, which leads into a short cinematic and rather triumphant sounding orchestral keyboard led interlude. The album starts good and proper with ‘Wir Sind Die Wolfe’, a fairly “radio-friendly” track, for want of a better phrase, with menacing vocals, refreshingly growled in the bands mother tongue (I do so wish more bands would do this, it does make for a more interesting listen), which to be honest, makes for not only a refreshing change as I can’t remember the last time I heard a metal band sing in German (bar the obvious, which I won’t bother mentioning), and you can’t knock the harsh, clipped nature of the language in addition to the way in which it is sung making for a pretty menacing sound (I only mention this as you can’t imagine the flowing and almost lyrical nature of the French language being half as mean as this sounds). It really works, well. Galloping riffs, underpinned with melodic flourishes and frenetically picked distorted rhythm guitars and seriously tight and powerful drumming, especially on the double bass pedal … hang on a minute, this isn’t “Viking metal” at all, damn that press release for making me think it was going to be another one of “those” bands - this is, in fact, seriously well executed melodic death/black metal. Marvellous! Bring it on. One of the greatest pleasures of this album lies not only in the clearly audible tight performance and apparent skilled musicianship of each member, but also in the subtle variety in song-styling, thus easily grabbing your attention from start to finish and listen after listen. ‘Schwertzeit’ launches straight into an aural wall of sheer extreme metal power, before morphing in a bit more of a chugging groove and then a great guitar-led melodic riff that the likes Paradise Lost or Dark Tranquility would be proud of, and then back and forth between the two, interspersed with clean-sung vocals, and ending with atmospheric samples of wind and rain. A true journey of a track, but therin lies the evidence of their songwriting skill, and so it is evident right the way through the album. ‘Glorreiche Tage’ oozes more of this infectious melodic riffing, with more of a thrasy side than other tracks. And so this gloriously subtle song variety continues with the more groove-laden and traditional melodic death metal stylings of title track ‘Wolfskult’ and ‘Glutsturm’, the more melodic black metal leanings of ‘Naglfar’ and ‘Blutdienst III’, and the gently strummed acoustic guitars at the start of ‘Phonix’ and the almost In The Woods-esque slow electro-acoustic feel midpoint through the near-10-minute epic ‘Sehnsucht’ allowing the music to breathe a little before launching back into the main melody of each track. And just as the album commenced atmospherically, so does it close in a similar manner, this time with the aural essence of cold winds and crackling fires. Ferociously intense and powerful throughout, in terms of vocal delivery, musicianship and production, ‘Wolfskult’ is evidence of a band destined to go far, and one that I’m guessing delivers an immense live performance. As the lyrics in ‘Sehnsucht’ whisper in German “is there hunger, is there thirst”… for this listener anyway, Varg have spawned an insatiable craving for more of the same and a compelling desire to see this performed live. Go get some wolf inspired metal in your life. You won’t regret it.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

NoiseArt Records

Album

WOLFSKULT

Review by Hannah Sylvester

RUNNING TIME:

49:39

RELEASE DATE:

4th March 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) Jagd
2) Wir sind die Wölfe
3) Schwertzeit
4) Wolfskult
5) Naglfar
6) Glorreiche Tage
7) Phönix
8) Blutdienst III
9) Sehnsucht
10) Glutsturm

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Germany

"One of the greatest pleasures of this album lies not only in the clearly audible tight performance and apparent skilled musicianship of each member, but also in the subtle variety in song-styling, thus easily grabbing your attention from start to finish and listen after listen."