Review by Mohsen Fayyazi

Band: WOLF
Album: Devil Seed
Release Date: August 25^th 2014
Label: Century Media Records

Tracklist:

1. Overture in C Shark
2. Shark Attack
3. Skeleton Woman
4. Surgeons Of Lobotomy
5. My Demon
   
6. I Am Pain
7. Back From The Grave
8. The Dark Passenger
9. River Everlost
10. Frozen
11. Killing Floor

WARNING; The wolves are back with true sharp steel and pure heavy metal again and you cannot ignore their metal greatness.

In Persia, we say “Keeping up success is harder than reaching it“. Swedish heavy metal heroes WOLF have released two stunning and successful albums up to now, at least in my opinion; “Ravenous” and “Legions Of Bastards”, which brought the attention of many fans and critics to them. Now they are going to see the release of their seventh studio album, “Devil Seed” via Century Media Records and hoping they can hit those successes again or even go higher.

Again like previous WOLF records, “Devil Seed” is a nuclear bomb of energy and very heavy metal. Stronger than any kind of drink, this album starts with a head banger track, entitled ‘Overture In C Shark’. I think the name comes from their senses of humour, playful minds and their love of Yngwie Malmsteen. I can see the footsteps of Yngwie and also Ritchie Blackmore in the guitar riffs, which are written and performed with absolute perfection, portraying a confused and fearful picture, preparing you for the next track, which is the furious ‘Shark Attack’. I already described this track briefly for you at this location.

‘Skeleton Woman’ is the third track of this collection of masterpieces and a kind of emotional song. The band seemed to be influenced again by Yngwie Malmsteen during the writing and recording of ‘Skeleton Woman’. Solos with both acoustic and electric guitars are full of emotion and prepare the stage for Nik to light up the candles with his soft and magical voice and then the guitars bring on the flames. If you have been a WOLF fan for a long time, you will be surprised to hear Viper’s distraught style of singing mixed with sorrow and grief in part of this track, but no worries, it won’t make you cry but hearing the lyrics may do! By all means, it was a good try in producing a power ballad, but still this song is too heavy to be called one.

It’s a crazy world, but it wasn’t meant to be, now guess who should be blamed for it?! But Nature knows its job very well; believe it or not evolution is the key. WOLF are masters in talking about psychological subjects in their songs, as they did on previous work, such as ‘Mr Twisted’ from “Ravenous”. ‘Surgeons of Lobotomy’ is just another thoughtful song from the band in this way. Delicious psychological guitar riffs open the show, where only open minds are invited.

Next track is again a dark one, sounds like a WOLFie version of NWOBHM. ‘My Demon’ comes in the night, howling with some scary riffs and it will release your demonic energy and turn your neck to a piece of coil. (You may not know but I have a demon inside me too, a Wolverine!)

Pain was always an interesting subject in rock and metal music, DIO made the wise song ‘Pain’, JUDAS PRIEST has the amazing ‘Painkiller’ and now it’s WOLF ‘s time to talk about it in a seriously dark manner. The Wolverine has a serious character as well as its sense of humour. “I Am Pain” is a serious killer song, written only for adults. It sounds like an IRON MAIDEN song at the beginning, but it’s also a march of Scandinavian Folk music into the heavy metal realm.

This album is recorded and produced in high quality. I tried different ways of listening and in my opinion the best way is using good headphones so you can be sure that you won’t miss any tiny sound, as every one on this album counts. ‘Back From The Grave’ is a resurrection of old school metal into the modern world, now behold WOLF when they do their best with what they learned from legends such as Ritchie Blackmore. It’s alive, fire and storm, this track is a stunning piece of heavy rock.

‘The Dark Passenger’, A.K.A the 8^th track from “Devil Seed”, is a mysterious one. The band used some pure traditional heavy metal elements, it sounds like a mixture of ACCEPT and Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW. Especially the solo part, where I think Simon Johansson used a Guitar Slide, smooth and perfect.

Metal Gods, JUDAS PRIEST, will love ‘River Everlost’, which sounds like one of their songs. Wolverine did not like “Redeemer Of Souls” but he just told me: “I loves “Devil Seed”.” Forget about it, ”River Everlost’ is a masterpiece with a mixture of PRIEST and MANOWAR – incredible riffs, heavy and tough.

“Have you heard? The winter is coming!” Wolverine commented. I just ignored him and carried on to enjoy listening to ‘Frozen’. Opposing the name, it’s very hot, fast and powerful, plus a few enjoyable riffs and solos. The drum parts match the rest of music on the whole album, splendid. “Oyy, shall I go for more Fur or Fat? As the winter will be sol cold?” Wolverine is shouting at me now!

An arpeggio from hell, sounding very Malmsteen-ish, starts the ‘Killing Floor’ song, which is the last song of this album. It’s absolutely stunning dark heavy metal. Powerful, energetic and bone crusher riffs will blow your head and mind, so hellcome to the real dark world. “Anybody talks about vengeance?” It seems Wolverine cannot be silent. “Let’s start again, I want more of this sharp steel”

“Devil Seed” is absolutely a milestone in WOLF’s career, a point made of knowledge, genius and bravery. Philosophers, psychologists and archaeologists will love this album but metalheads will adore it. Also me and Wolverine would like to see them live on stage one day to rock, and maybe comparing the sharpness of their teeth with Mr Wolverine’s claws. “Devil Seed” is a masterpiece and WOLF is a legendary band, the whole world will see this one day, it’s just a matter of time. As the final word, I would like to give 10 to this album but I haven’t, because I am still waiting to hear a power ballad track from them, so I removed 1 point. But as ‘Skeleton Woman’ was a great try in this way, I give half a point back. “So what’s the rating of this album finally, you ***?” Wolverine complained. Me: “It can be seen below, your grace! :s”.

Rating: 9.5/10