Album Details

• Artist: Wolfbrigade
• Album: Damned
• Label: Southern Lord
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2012-07-29

"Damned" is Sweden's Wolfbrigade's fifth full-length (eighth, if you count the three released in the mid-90s when they were Wolfpack) and the band has lost none of it grim intensity. A dozen track set coming in at a searingly compact thirty five minutes, Wolfbrigade, and the songs on "Damned," reach and maintain a peak when it keeps to that simple, pulverizing attack.

"Feed The Flames" kicks it off with a memorable hellish groove, though hot hot hot on its heels is "Slaves Of Induction" massive riff creating a lethal wall of sound. This is the best one-two punch of the set.
"On Your Knees... In Misery," stomps along minus the solos that sometimes bog down other tracks like "The Curse of Cain," this one is blistering for all its minute plus of fury. Speaking of bogging down, the would-be mini-epic, "Ride the Steel," while featuring one of the best solos in the set, also has bit of atmospheric nu-metal that waters it down.
Other highlights include the punishing, brutal "Catch 22," the frantic, whiplash rhythm of "Damned to Madness" and "Peace of Mind."

It is impossible not to like Wolfbrigade, and to appreciate the stripped down, honest fury of their music. "Damned" is a thick slab of energy, rage and killer grooves; not bad for a band seventeen years into their assault on the masses.

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