Wendigo, who hail from the all-too-quiet pastures of North-West Germany, grew up on a steady diet of AC/DC, ZZ Top and other such blues-infused hard rock bands. Clearly tired of the distinct lack of hard rock in the locale, the band formed in 2012 with the lofty goal of bringing their gnarled take on metal to the masses and the first fruits of their labours have appeared in the guise of the ‘Initiation’ EP, a three-track blast of retro-fitted heavy blues with just a pinch of stoner thrown in for good measure.
The EP kicks off with the AC/DC worship of ‘Play it’, a snarling, groovy beast of a song that captures the sound of Motorcycles pounding the asphalt through a blazing desert. Jorg Theilen sings like a cat with its knackers trapped in a particularly tight vice, whilst Eric Post and Jan Ole Moller keep the riffs snarling throughout. It’s not overly original perhaps, but it certainly is energetic and what comes across most clearly is the band’s collective love for the music that so heavily influenced their formative years as a cover band. ‘Sail on’, which opens with Lennard Viertel’s creeping bass line and Steffen Freesemann’s tumbling drums is pure garage rock, as sweaty and trashy as early Iggy Pop and short enough that it appears, earns itself a set of bloody knuckles and then buggers off before you’re really sure what happened. The Ep ends with ‘Holy Hypocrite’, a slower, darker track that hints at interesting future developments with its lysergic riff and hypnotic beat. Definitely the EP’s highlight, the band were wise to ease the listener in with the faster tracks, but this definitely caps the disc off nicely.Particularly strong is Jorg’s performance which moves away from the strangled screams of the first two tracks toward a more grounded, Dio-esque style that is entirely appropriate to this epic track.
While the EP opens with the band very much in thrall to the heroes of their youth, the three tracks on offer here show decent progression and ‘Holy Hypocrite’ in particular promises a brighter future if the band can stay the course. Loud, fun and with plenty of energy, ‘Initiation’ is a cracking start and well worth checking out. 7
