Wolf - 'Ravenous'

Swedish traditional metal revivalists return with a mixed bag of familiar goodies on Ravenous.

As the metal scene incrementally returns to its past, one of the re-inventors of the scene who’ve actually been around for more than a couple years is Sweden’s Wolf; they’ve been chewing along since 1995, for the record. At times Wolf sounds like they could’ve made the cut for Penelope Spheris’ Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years with their blind devotion to both Euro and Ameri-Cali power rock themes. Others they just plod along under the grace of producer and guitar savant Roy Z on their present album Ravenous.

Starting with the foot-tapping “Speed On,” Ravenous gets its rhythm in stout fashion. From there, Ravenous keeps pushing forth to the best of Wolf’s abilities, which are considerable if not overtly crushing. You can’t help but think of Maiden on the bridge of “Curse You Salem,” yet the song does yield some fabulous guitar soloing from Johannes Axeman and Niklas Stalvind to compensate.

“Mr. Twisted,” “Blood Angel” and “Hiding in the Shadows” are agreeable, bouncy tracks, yet the perverse “Love at First Bite” would be throwaway if the main riffs and well-plucked solo weren’t its saving grace.

“Voodoo” and “Secrets We Keep” are more or less there as in off-Sunset Strip power rawk, while et tu, we really didn’t need more Julius jargon with “Hail Caesar,” (who is suddenly as popular as the Wendigo in metal these days) even if the latter song does have a tasty chug to its threading melody. At least “Whisky Psycho Hellions” hoots with a rowdy candor, particularly on its swilled choruses.

Even if Ravenous doesn’t always make the shutters tremble (though having Mercyful Fate/Force of Evil’s Hank Shermann peel off a solo ushers some quake) and even if there’s something a bit too proverbial in its mirrored existence, Wolf is welcome simply for holding a candle in faith to metal’s cherished ways.