As the name suggests,
Lonewolf owe plenty in style to original German Pirateers
Running Wild ('
Lonewolf' being one of RW's better known tracks of course), which I have to admit is an area of
Power Metal that I'm quite partial to. I agree with most of the views I've read about
Lonewolf's
2012 offering “
Army of the Damned” - the main gripe being with the heavily French accented gravelly vocals that tended to grate on the nerves after a while. Well the band ARE from France, so it's got to be accepted that there may be a slight accent (a little like accusing
Rammstein of sounding a bit German...), but I feel that if this was an issue, it has pretty much been addressed this time around. Vocalist Jens Börner (typically French name there...) now sounds somewhere between
Grave Digger's Chris Boltendahl and
David Glen Eisley (circa the rather underrated Murderer's Row album).
So, David Glen Boltendahl sings
Running Wild?
And that's where many of you have stopped reading and left me with just a small gathering that are either a)
Running Wild fans, b) Not quite as easily discouraged
Power Metal fans, or c) Really bored with nothing better to do. I'll aim the review at categories 'a' and 'b' if that's OK, but the rest of you are more than welcome to stick with it too...
I think it's a little harsh to dismiss
Lonewolf as purely
Running Wild clones, because writing a few twiddly, shanty-style guitar riffs over
Power Metal drumming doesn't make a band
Running Wild...but it's a good place to start! Given that the main influence IS
Running Wild, it's nice that I hear additional similarities to
Tyr on '
Guardian Angel' and 'Time For
War', a touch of
Ensiferum on 'Hellride' and a real classic Bodom-ness on 'Throne Of Skulls'.
Orden Ogan are of course in evidence too, especially on the epic '
Destiny' and some
Freedom Call is scattered here and there too. OK, all these slightly more unexpected influences are balanced – but not outweighed - by the utterly overblown galloping Happymetal of tracks such as 'Dragonriders', 'The Brotherhood Of' and the title track. But that's absolutely fine by me! You've got to have a few songs like this, and granted a whole album of this stuff might be a little hard to stomach, but
Lonewolf don't fall into that trap - there is such a nice variety of styles under their umbrella that the whole album seems to gel really well. I suppose some people will also claim there is some
Alestorm in the mix, but really
Alestorm are more lyrically Pirate
Metal rather than musically, whereas
Lonewolf are musically of the Pirate
Metal trait but lyrically have more in common with
Viking or Battle
Metal.
I reckon
Lonewolf have got it right with “
The Fourth and Final Horseman”, and yeah, they are not going to be liked by many
Extreme Metal fans, just as
Power Metal itself isn't.
And given that
Running Wild have been ridiculed within the
Metal scene for many years (I remember them being dubbed as Iron Maiden meets Captain Pugwash in a 1986 review! Probably justified in hindsight...), then
Lonewolf aren't likely to sell millions of records. But this album is great fun! It is one of those albums that you 'Do stuff to' y'know? Do you need to walk the dog? Wash the car? Mow the lawn? Take the bus? Then listen to
Lonewolf and everything seems to be less mundane and just a little bit more fun. I hereby give
Napalm Records permission to use that as a marketing slogan!
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