There are certain types of metal bands who instantly make you sit up and want to yell “hell yeah!” the instant their CD starts spinning. Such is the case with Wolfcrusher, a diverse, well-oiled riff machine that takes elements of southern-metal groove, death metal and more to create a beguiling tapestry of sound that slam-dunks you from the moment ‘reborn’ slams into your gut and makes you double over gasping for breath.
‘Reborn’ really epitomises everything that is good about metal. You have tightly wound riffs, fret-board bothering solos, melody and aggression in perfect balance and it forms the perfect introduction to ‘Virgin Tapestry’, a brutal, seven-track blast of confidence and power from a band who are only hinting at their full capability. As ‘skeletonize’ comes thrashing towards you with its riffs hewn from pure steel and the drums (courtesy of talented sticksman Dan Mikietyn) setting a mechanistic pace that would put the Terminator to shame, it’s all but impossible to stop your head from banging whilst Gary Harkin unleashes screams, growls and clean vocals to mesmerising effect. There’s diversity and multiple riffs per song, not to mention mood and tempo changes to die for and that’s before you’ve even hit ‘lost at sea’, the third track of this remarkable record. Coupling a Lamb of god style groove with some southern style vocals, ‘lost at sea’ sounds a little like LOG jamming on mid-period Corrosion of conformity covers and it rules – a slamming, whiskey-gulpin’ belter of a track that, if anything, proves just how diverse a range Gary has whilst Daniel Mucs and Arun Kamath do sterling work on the guitars. ‘All shall pass’ is the most surprising of all, ditching the high-octane approach for a melodic, beautiful and wholly unexpected approach that sounds utterly natural and unforced despite its apparent incongruity.
After the melodic detour of ‘all shall pass’, Wolfcrusher step on up with the grinding riffs and percussive maelstrom of ‘Insuperabilis’, a raging beast out for a fight and super-confident of its abilities. Thanks to its quieter predecessor, it sounds even heavier in the context of the album and it’s a beautiful, brutal, exquisite moment of heads-down, pedal-to-the-floor metal that will have any metal fan with a pulse grinning like they’ve won the lottery. Some sublime soloing in true classic-rock style opens up the bruising ‘no chance’, a monolithic slab of stop/start riffing and Kyuss-esque vocals. All that leaves only ‘moving mountains’ to round out the set and it proves to be a vicious slab of primal groove metal, the guitars grinding over a monumentally vicious percussive attack and all of it augmented by Mitch’s solid bass work to craft a fitting close to an album that never dips below the exceptional.
‘Virgin Tapestry’ is a mind-blowingly phenomenal debut that pushes all the right buttons. With enough melody to be memorable, enough diversity to keep things interesting throughout and enough guts and passion to sate even the most demanding of appetites, Wolfcrusher have crafted a record that cleverly leaves you desperate for more. With gloriously tight production and suitably wicked looking artwork this is an essential purchase for lovers of heavy metal everywhere. Available now on Casket records this was a highlight of 2011 which I foolishly missed… I shall not make the same mistake twice for Wolfcrusher are quite exceptional.
