The first thing that grabbed my attention about this CD was the ridiculously lousy cover art - is that suppose to be a wolf ?!?!?! Looks more like a well dressed baboon if you ask me...and what's with the bird-headed fingers ?!?!?! Anyway, retarded cover art aside, this CD actually isn't that bad, although the first track is so wretched it took a great ammount of restraint on my part not to throw a rather hefty paperback copy of the Marquis De Sade's "The 120 Days Of Sodom" (which happened to be onhand) at the CD player to make it stop. After that rather distasteful opening, Wolf manage to improve to the point where they become listenable - so long as you define listenable as "classic NWOBHM", and you better fancy a VERY VERY VERY prominent Iron Maiden (pre "Piece Of Mind" era) influence (although to be fair, I also spotted a bit of a "Blizzard Of Ozz" influence as well). Makes you wonder if they hand out the first six Maiden albums in Swedish elementary schools or something, as every third band coming out of the land of bombshell blondes and over-rated pornography owes much of their sound (regardless of genre) to said bad boys from the U.K. Wolf manage to take a good stab at it, although there are a few spots on the CD where you hear direct lifts from past Maiden gems. The main problem I have with this band is the vocals - they're just a little mundane for my liking (imagine a less pronounced version of Bruce Dickinson with half the energy and a third of the range and you'll get an idea - Ozzy meets Dickinson). Still, the playing is more than competent, and the production is quite good as it isn't too "modern" and carries over a vibe very similar to "Killers" (in the sense it isn't as clean as latter Maiden was)...

A good album for classic metal aficionados and Maiden fanatics, but avoid this if you're expecting the more traditional No Fashion fodder (ie: generic Swedish black metal), as this will surely disappoint...

© 2000 chorazaim