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deathwolf oestergotland
Artist: Death Wolf
Title: III: Östergötland
Genre: Black Metal / Death Metal
Release Date: 8th December 2014
Label: Century Media Records


Album Review

DEATH WOLF, formerly known as DEVILS WHOREHOUSE and the band around Morgan Håkansson, guitarist and mastermind of MARDUK, released their third album ’III: Östergötland’ in December 2014. The title itself already reveals the deep roots to Sweden which can also be found throughout the whole album - of course not without those martial tendencies as known from MARDUK.

The opener, ‘Sea Wolf’, is riff-heavy and rocking, but not particularly outstanding. It manages to get you in the mood though, and followed by ‘Thorntree’ - husky vocals accompanied by heavy guitars and drums - you’re ready for what’s up ahead, which is the title track, ‘Östergötland’. Tristesse deluxe, with a mixture of Doom and Black Metal-like riffs combined with lugubrious vocals to something like a sad ode to home. It does not lose any of it heaviness though and carries you on a wave of melancholy straight into food tapping - or really slow head banging. ‘Wall of Shields’ is entirely different. Rough, blunt, full of hate. If your hair does not get tangled here, you’re doing something wrong - you have almost two minutes of intense head banging to do! The follow-up, ‘Stegeborg’, is slower but not less strong. Håkansson’s voice is distorted to sound very occult here and is accompanied by a heroic sounding choir - very Viking-like, BATHORY-style.

In ‘Today King, Tomorrow Dead’ the sound is more clear and lucid. We get a redundant chorus and catchy riffs, reminding of DANZIG, and the song seamlessly merges with ‘Marching Sound’, an instrumental interlude which does not exactly live up to what you’d expect from the title until the very end where the real march starts. ‘Seeds of Blood’ is a lot heavier again - and catchier. Serious guitars, an insistent chorus and a strong presence of the bass make this one unique. The ninth track - ‘1658’ - is opened by neighing of horses and throws you back to that exact year. It’s a very atmospheric war song, strong and sad in its lyrics, with impressively strong vocals and bass work and intimidating guitars - MARDUK say hello! It ends almost quiet though and eases its way straight into ‘Carrion Lord’, soothing bird-sounds opening the track. It doesn’t stay that calm though, and a few seconds later we’re back to the dark sound of heavy, melancholic Black Metal with hints of old BATHORY but less bombastic and symphonic.

‘Black Sunlight’, another short interlude, hits you like a sledgehammer: Fast, heavy, dirty, screaming, and drum- and riff-heavy. Sadly only a little longer than a minute - not even enough time to get exhausted while head banging! The twelfth and last track is ‘Vikbolandet’, an instrumental ode to the correspondent peninsula east of Norrköping in Sweden. Not as melancholic as ‘Östergötland’ but still tainted with a certain sadness it condignly closes the album and makes the whole thing a really nice piece of work - which leads to my conclusion: DEATH WOLF’s ‘III: Östergötland’ may not be everyone’s cup of tea since it does not particularly stand out from the Black Metal crowd and comes along quite slow for the genre. It definitely has strong moments and a bitter aftertaste, and whoever likes dark tendencies and a certain melancholy combined with heavy music should check the album out, especially now that the cold and dark days are coming, a winter soundtrack worth listening to.


Tracklist

01. Sea Wolf
02. Thorntree
03. Östergötland
04. Wall Of Shields
05. Stegeborg
06. Today King, Tomorrow Dead
07. Marching South
08. Seeds Of Blood
09. 1658
10. Carrion Lord
11. Black Sunlight
12. Vikbolandet


Line-up

Valentin Mellström – vocals
Morgan Håkansson – bass
Marcus Bäckbrand – guitar
Mikael "Hrafn" Karlsson – drums


Website

http://www.deathwolf.net / http://www.facebook.com/deathwolfcult


Cover Picture

deathwolf oestergotland


Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 7.5
Total: 7.75 / 10





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