Band:
Jens Börner - Vocals, Guitars
Michael Hellström - Guitars
Rikki Mannhard - Bass
Bubu Brunner - Drums
Discography:
2002 March Into The Arena
2003 Unholy Paradise
2008 Made In Hell
2009 The Dark Crusade
2012 Army Of The Damned
2013 The Fourth And Final Horseman
2014 Cult Of Steel
2016 The Heathen Dawn
Guests:
Info:
All songs arranged and produced by LONEWOLF
Recorded by Xavier Sindt at Microclimat Studio, Grenoble,France
Mixed and mastered by Charles Greywolf at Studio Greywolf, Holz, Germany
Cover artwork by Peter Sallai
Released 2017-09-22
Reviewed 2017-10-07
Links:
wolfdivision.com
massacre
Some Lonewolves from France is what I am dealing with today, a band with a pretty long history that contains nine album including this new one. Their first album was released in 2002 and during all that time I hadn’t really even noticed their existence despite at least their latest album being released on the same label as this one so I must have gotten the promo but it probably didn’t make any kind of impression whatsoever. So what about this new album, will it be further proof that making genre typical music makes for an anonymous existence in the world of music?
The way they relate to the cover in the first track is pretty cool, kind of like from a world where they were raised by metalworkers, swordsmiths or something like that. Too bad it doesn’t continue like that. It is standardised heavy metal the style of German bands like Wizard, Paragon, Mystic Prophecy, Running Wild and many, many others. The production is quite average for an album in this genre and they use the same kind of vocalist as is common in the genre as well. There is not much about Lonewolf and their music that stand out from everything else, and the album is long as well, even without the bonus tracks the 37-minute original version feels way too long.
Raised by Metal isn’t a bad album, some songs are even pretty good but the problem is that this kind of album has been done so many times before and this is nowhere near the better ones that has been done so one has to question why they made it. It is rather difficult to see a point in such an album and I doubt anyone will remember such an album after having listened to it once. Perhaps it can appeal to the fans of this particular genre but I doubt even they will care that much for one more album amongst the many that already exist. To be honest, I think Lonewolf needs to find some originality and they need better songs if they want to be a factor within this genre.
Frankly, it is strange how musicians that write their own songs can be so without creativity and fresh thinking. Lonewolf seems to be satisfied to churning out the same stuff as everyone else and of the same quality as everyone else – Raised by Metal feels like an album that lacks ambition, a pretty good but also very anonymous album that will be forgotten very quickly.
HHHHHHH
