Bad Wolves
N.A.T.I.O.N.

Bad Wolves are probably, and will probably, be most known for their cover of Zombie that was originally released by The Cranberries. That cover has been streamed over a quarter billion times across the platform and have helped the band to hand over a check for 250 000 dollars to the children of Dolores O’Riordan who were supposed to have done a guest appearance on the track but sadly passed away before she could do that. Her passing probably boosted this band a fair bit though and helped making the debut album to be successful. And here comes the difficult sequel, and they have decided to call it N.A.T.I.O.N. a title that makes you think of the stupid concept of nations and that sort of meaningless concept. The album itself is probably less meaningless than that, the artwork isn’t great though – tattooed females is not a beautiful thing.

The album is quite similar to the predecessor Disobey in terms of style, modern heavy rock music. They do offer a great production, decent vocalist, catchy songs, some strong melodies, but they do not offer anything fresh or imaginative, they don’t offer anything that we haven’t already heard before. They sound quite similar to many other bands in the same genre; I would say that it is a stretch to claim that they offer anything new or fresh with their second album. The imagination is lacking, and so is the variation so it is probably quite good that they keep the playing time pretty short.

I think that this album is pretty good, with decent tracks and melodies. There isn’t really much to complain about, but there isn’t much to celebrate either. There are no standout tracks and I think the album lacks depth, your view might differ though and especially if you liked the previous album, then you will probably find this one appealing as well as it is kind of the same. Not much has really happened since the debut and again it feels like it would be wiser to take more time between the albums instead of rushing them out every year as there isn’t much time to evolve as persons or songwriters in that short time period, that is why bands that release albums less frequently are better than those who often release albums.

In the end I think N.A.T.I.O.N. is a fairly average albums for the genre, the craftsmanship and production is top notch but the artistry leaves much to be desired. Most people will like the album but few will adore it, therefore a rating in the middle is the most logical choice. And the conclusion will have to be that if you liked the debut album you will probably like this one as well.

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