Powerwolf – Wake Up The Wicked
Powerwolf – Wake Up The Wicked
Napalm Records
Release Date: 26/07/2024
Running Time: 37:00
Review by Rory Bentley
8.5/10
Hungry like the wolf? More like horny like the wolf, which is by way of saying everyone’s favourite sexy lycanthropic German Power Metallers are back with another collection of super catchy, bonkers and frisky-ass bangers. So “Wake Up The Wicked”, it’s time to get howling again.
Being one of the literal handful of Power Metal acts I can actually tolerate, Atilla Dorn and the gang have established a well-deserved reputation for serving up a killer live show and albums full of muscular, hyper-camp floor fillers that tell tales of monsters, blasphemy and sexy times. “Wake up…” is no different in this respect, with very little deviation from 2021’s monstrous “Call of the Wild”, but believe me when I say I do not give one fuck that they’ve not tried anything new.
The literal second the stabbing chords and overblown choral vocals on ‘Bless ‘em With the Blade’ kick in I know the next 37 minutes are going to absolutely fuck. When my boy says “tear up the bible, sacral survival” in that commanding, muscular baritone it feels like home, and by the time the obligatory gargantuan chorus hits I can already picture myself 8 pints deep bellowing this out at Bloodstock and upsetting everyone around me. The band have an unreal knack for pounding out glorious Pop songs and delivering them with gutsy Metallic bombast. This is like creatine ABBA- jacked to the gills and capable of getting your toes tapping and your neck snapping.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Powerwolf album without a few Macabre takes from history and folklore. ‘1589’ tells the story of the surprisingly prosaicly-named Peter Stumpp, an alleged serial-killing German farmer accused of being a werewolf (nice), a witch (rad) and a cannibal (Ah. That’s pretty gross). As usual the band goes into graphic, grizzly detail, but the chorus is unbelievably infectious and bouncy. It’s like if Sabaton only did songs about really fucked up shit. ‘Joan of Arc’ is a little less successful in this respect, straying a little too close to Sabaton territory without really adding much of that classic wolfie flavour to proceedings.
All is forgiven, however, when the song that follows it is called ‘Thunderpriest’ and does exactly what you’d want a song with that title to do. It goes at a million miles an hour, has a dramatic ascending pre-chorus and then the actual chorus is mainly Attilla shouting the song title over and over again like an absolute lad. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that, mates. Children’s choir jumpscare aside, ‘We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints’ continued the righting of the ship with another big chorus, blasphemous lyrics and riffs to demolish buildings with.
The band even dip their paws into a bit of Folk Metal with triumphant closer, ‘Vargamor’. Attica gets to flex those classical chops and goes full on Les Mis as he colours the story with soft croons and powerful bellows over the kind of rustic melodies Koorpiklani would be proud to write. It’s still beefy as hell and absolutely bonkers, but it does show that Powerwolf can add new elements to their furry formula without upsetting the apple cart.
Ultimately if you weren’t down with the ‘Wolf before, “Wake Up The Wicked” is unlikely to convert you to the canine clergy, however if you’ve not gone in on them before this could be the spooky soundtrack to your summer. Those that are already of the cloth, however, have just got another laser-guided set of preposterous ragers to bark along to, and there’s nothing ruff about that deal. Fuck my life.
‘1589’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Bless ’em With the Blade
02. Sinners of the Seven Seas
03. Kyrie Klitorem
04. Heretic Hunter
05. 1589
06. Viva Vulgata
07. Wake Up the Wicked
08. Joan of Arc
09. Thunderpriest
10. We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints
11. Vargamor
LINE-UP:
Attila Dorn – vocals
Falk Maria Schlegel – organ
Charles Greywolf – guitar
Matthew Greywolf – guitar
Roel van Helden – drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Rory Bentley and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
