wolfpakk wolfpakk

Released: 26 August 2011 Label: AFM

Wolfpakk is a hard-rocking collaboration between Mark Sweeney and Michael Voss, formerly of bands Casanova, Mad Max and Crystal Ball, and the line-up consists of a ludicrously large collection of guest musicians ranging from the rather famous, to the somewhat less so, shall we say!

Amongst the ten guest vocalists we get the likes of Paul Di'anno, Ripper Owens, Jeff Scott Soto, Frank Martin, and a host more. Within the ranks of the six bassists there are the likes of Germany's prolific Mat Sinner and Neil Murray from Whitesnake. Eleven guitarists have been drafted in, from bands such as U.D.O, Lizzy Borden and Gotthard.

A measly two keyboard players show up; Alessandro Delvecio and Ferdy Doernberg.

And to keep this huge ensemble in check, there's only one drummer, Gereon Homann, although to be fair he does a very good job!

What to do with so many guest stars then?

The answer for the most part is to have them playing mediocre, cliché ridden cheese metal. But every now and then, there are redeeming moments!

Sirens starts the album off promisingly enough, as it's easily one of the better songs here, with an atmospheric keyboard build up, impressive double kick attack from the drummer, and a memorable chorus. The vocals are a bit nasal, but the solo is excellent.

Dark Horizons is an 80's sounding stomper, but with dismal lyrics and a turgid chorus, and it effectively loses all the momentum built up with the impressive opener. When fillers appear as early as the second song, I tend to get wary.

Lost, another slower number again, really plods along. There's an eastern tinge to the riffing, which has been done better countless times elsewhere, and the awful tremolo pre-chorus vocals make it a chore to get though. Which is a shame as the middle third replete with female vocals is fairly decent.

Some metal songs exist solely to deliver a killer chorus, and thankfully, Slam Down the Hammer, with its hilariously poor lyrics, redeems itself when it delivers the best chorus of the album. It really is pure 80's in the choral delivery, riffing, and soloing. I admired it for the pure hit of cheese it delivered so well!

The Crow gets off to a battle metal start, a proto-Iron Maiden sounding military tattoo, and grows into a chugging metal gallop. The chorus, again, wears its 80's roots to the fore, but it's another one of the better songs here.

Wolfpup is an unremarkable acoustic instrumental that leads into Wolfpakk's first attempt at an epic metal track, with Let Me Die. This ticks a lot of the boxes but manages, despite a soaring chorus and a bass driven verse, to fail with a spectacularly comical mid-section, where a Scottish voice dourly narrates a cliché drenched tale of a face-painted soldier striding into the wind and rain on the battlefield with his blood brothers, before holding his sword aloft and yelling for "freedom."

Some listeners would say that at least Wolfpakk are trying to wring more than just a verse and chorus from the basic "rock song" format, but I would say that anything that makes you burst out laughing when they are trying to be serious, is not a good thing.

Reptile's Kiss, the first video, is rather bland filler, as is Ride the Bullet, as both seem to be a series of interchangeable 80's clichés. Although some of the lines in Ride the Bullet; "I can't resist party time, but I go crazy when the circus comes to town," seem more from the point of view of a small, excitable child who could not possibly remember the 80's! I mean, what kind of adult uses the phrase "party time" I ask you.

The album closes on a long note. A ten minute rock symphony called Wolfony. (Did you see what they did there?)

It leaves no cliché unmolested in its adherence to the formula. It's a paint-by-numbers epic rock track, starting slowly with faux classical piano movements, and then developing into huge riffs, with an enormous ensemble singing a melodic chorus. Then there's the obligatory middle section of instrumental workouts and solos, before the chorus again, and an atmospheric outro complete with overdubbed wolf howls to close the album.

I have to admit that I actually quite enjoyed it though, silly as it was.

As a hard rock / 80's metal outfit, Wolfpakk are either completely aware of the clichés they are working with and ironically joining in the joke, or, it's bone headedly stupid. I'd like to think that they fall in between the two, and they aren't just sarcastically taking the piss with the so-bad-it's good line, as there are a few moments of genuine class on here.

Overall, Wolfpakk, despite a promising array of talent, never quite realises its potential. The music is largely unchallenging and pedestrian. When it's good, such as the opening of The Crow, Sirens, and the hilarious chorus of Slam Down the Hammer, it's very entertaining, but when its bad, such as the spoken narrative of Let Me Die, much of the lyrics, and Dark Horizon it's pretty cringe-worthy.

I will say though, that the album is remarkably consistent-sounding considering the shifting personnel on each track. If Wolfpakk get around to recording a follow up, then I'd probably check it out as there's certainly potential here that merits further exploration.

by Steven Hargraves