Chicago’s Blood of the Wolf has been putting out blackened death metal that’s capable of steamrolling everything in its path for over a decade now, and they’ve been refining and tweaking their approach with each release. On their latest full-length V: Indomitablethe group has retained their blackened edge but leaned a bit more into the death metal side of their songwriting while also making some tweaks to the production that allows everything to hit even harder than before. The approach may be familiar, but Blood of the Wolf has the riffs and intensity to back things up and that makes their latest effort worth checking out.
V: Indomitable doesn’t waste any time on intros or any type of build-ups, instead launching right into a fast and furious attack on opener “Tempest of Purifying Fire”. Compared to their last few releases the production seems oriented more on the low end this time while still keeping things balanced, which lets the drums thump you right in the chest without drowning out the rest of the band. Stylistically the material gives off a lot of Angelcorpse and earlier God Dethroned vibes as well as mid-period Behemoth, letting the blackened elements come through in the riffing but retaining a lot of death metal through the low-end. It’s a familiar steamroll approach, but the way that the instrumentals twist and turn on songs like “Glory To The Gods Of War” and “Flesh for the Warfather” stand out over repeat listens and gives Blood of the Wolf more of their own identity. The sheer intensity really draws you in, as the band doesn’t let up for the entire thirty-one-minute run. This steamroll approach does admittedly result in some of the songs blurring together, especially those where the blasting sticks at around the same cadence, but given the shorter length this doesn’t hurt the material too much.
Vocalist Mike Koniglio has a very low growl that towers over the recording, and there are a lot of similarities in his pitch to Peter from Vader. This is another element of Blood of the Wolf’s material that caught my attention, as the growls have a fullness to them that matches the power of the rest of the band and this isn’t something that every death metal vocalist does well. The low-end dominates much of the album, but you do get some transitions into slightly higher pitched territory on tracks like “Glory To The Gods Of War” which helps to shake things up. “Assembled to Annihilate” is another great example of how the growls subtly shift in pitch over the course of the track, and details like this go a long way in giving V: Indomitable more staying power.
A few of the tracks do blur together a bit due to similar riffs and flows, but the standout ones make up for it and give Blood of the Wolf’s latest effort some real staying power. The group has channeled some of the better blackened death metal bands from across the US and Europe while still having some touches of their own, and whether you like the steamrolling of Angelcorpse or some of the sharper edges of God Dethroned this album will have plenty of appeal. V: Indomitable is available from Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg