REVIEW: Wolf – Legions Of Bastards

Artist: Wolf
Album: Legions Of Bastards
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Century Media

Heavy metal: a genre of music whose name has become antiquated and accepted into the vernacular of common man (especially those who don’t understand the subtleties between metal sub-genres). In the last couple years certain bands have done a lot of work to reclaim the term “heavy metal” and return it to its luster from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Bands such as Cauldron, Holy Grail, and White Wizzard have all adopted a sound very closely related to the classic, true heavy metal sound. People often forget, however, that there are some bands that have been doing this for quite a long time, and one of those bands is called Wolf who have been doing it since ’95.

Legions of Bastards, the followup to 2009’s Ravenous, is another tried, true, and pure heavy metal album from top to bottom. Ballsy, full of falsetto vocals, blistering guitar solos–if it Maiden or Priest made it famous, you’re likely to find a taste of it on this album. Legions also avoids many of the typical criticisms that modern heavy metal bands face, such as questions of their originality or authenticity. While drawing heavy influence from classic heavy metal bands, they only do enough for it to still feel like classic heavy metal. They’ve seated themselves in their own little stylistic niche among other classic bands.

Thinking more deeply about the argument of originality and authenticity it begs the question, why do some bands see vehement backlash but others are accepted with open arms? It appears that Wolf certainly understood the answer to this question as they clearly aren’t borrowing from just one or two bands, avoiding the “tribute band” sound (bands like White Wizzard sometimes flirt with that too heavily). As mentioned before, Wolf have struck a very nice balance between fresh and classic.

Outside of Wolf’s musical content, it’s quite refreshing to hear a modern heavy metal record that doesn’t sit at an extreme end of the raw versus polished production scale. Legions has a sound that’s vaguely reminiscent of ‘80s production techniques (including some heavy reverb on the snare). Every instrument has at least the minimum amount of clarity and can be heard throughout the album, but there’s still just enough rawness to get the mean and classic quality across. The crown jewel of production on this album, however, is the vocals. A nice blend between a more dry vocal sound and the more modern reverb-laden vocals, they also see sparing double tracking and occasional backup harmonies.

Though Legions may not be the best heavy metal album out today, or even Wolf’s strongest release to date, it’s still a very solid listen. So long as you go into your listening experience knowing what to expect, and heavy metal fan would be sure to enjoy it. A marching romp through the heavy metal stylebook, Legions of Bastards is an album worth of the “true heavy metal” title.

Score: 8/10
Review written by: Jordan Munson

James Shotwell
Latest posts by James Shotwell (see all)
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.