Chuck Schuldiner Project

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Blood of Saints-Powerwolf

So, the new Powerwolf album Blood of Saints was released August 2 and it just continues the legacy of Powerwolf. IF you don't know them Powerwolf is one of the most fun and over the top metal bands of this decade. This band has a decent but loud instrumental sound and it comes over really well on the choruses. The guitars have some decent riffs, the rhythm sections is solid and there are some nice keyboard parts on this record. The vocals are a big part of what makes the music unique due to some HUGE choruses. Yet the base of the strength of Powerwolf comes from a aggressive guitar sound.

The Matthew Greywolf is the guitarist of Powerwolf and his riffs are very much in the style of Mercyful fate guitarist Hank Sherman. However on some of the more victorious sounding riffs he sounds a bit more like Dave Murray of Maiden. There are a few decent solos on this album but nothing great. All in all the guitar is not too technical or outstanding but the emotion provides a really fun over the top feel to the music. When listening to Greywolf I get such a joy in my heart from the sheer passion shown in the guitar playing. One of my favorite riffs is in their track Murder at Midnight. When he's not doing his gigantic riffs Greywolf plays rhythm well and adds aggression to the tracks.

The rhythm section is composed of Charles Greywolf the bassist and Roel Van Helden the drummer. Together they have a decent sound and they help to make the music come across in a powerful manner. Do wish that the bass got more unique fills as on this album there are very few good ones. Roel Van Helden does a good job fitting into the band on his first record with them. It feels as if there was no change. To finish, the rhythm section of this band is decent but nothing spectacular, yet once more, the passion of their playing is what drives them up.

The keys on this record are only present in a few tracks but when they do appear they make an excellent impression. Sometimes there are gentle piano intros like in the track We Drink Your Blood. On other tracks pianist Falk Maria Schlegel provides a more symphonic feel a good example of this is in the track Son of a Wolf. In short Schlegel adds a good feel to the band and helps the sound feel a lot more full.

The vocals of Attila Dorn are amazingly impassioned. His voice while nothing awe inspiring has such a fire behind it that the choruses become humongous beautiful centerpieces for the music to revolve around. In the way that he yells out “Hallelujah” one can clearly see that he is holding nothing back. Some of his choruses reek of Dickinson and this is great, he adds a huge Maiden feel to the music with his explosive choruses. The lyrics are typically silly for example “Deady boys don't cry/No wonder why”. Yet Attila Dorn is an amazing musician because he puts 100% in the music no matter how ridiculous he looks and he comes out with a really fun sound.

In conclusion, Powerwolf is essentially a more fun version of Iron Maiden. They have bigger choruses and bigger personalities and this comes across in the music. Matthew Greywolf's guitar is often riffing and while nothing spectacular it is still pretty good. The rhythm section is powerful if unchallenged. In addition he keyboards help to add a lot of the feel to the music. Finally the vocals of Dorn blow my head off and make me smile.

OVERALL 9/10

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