Sweden’s Wolfbrigade occupies a very specific place in hard-core. The band’s 11th album Life Knife Death might be their first for Metal Blade Records, but it does not venture far from the sonic ground they covered on the previous ten albums. This aligns them closely to Motorhead in a few ways, the first being they are steadfast in their dedication to burly hardcore champs. It charges at you with all the Punk and rocking fury you might expect from this band who infuses Entombed’s dense guitar tone with Motorhead’s reckless energy. The raw-throated vocals are more Lemmy-influenced than metal. There is a scant trace of the stomping sections you might expect from hardcore, though this is way heavier than punk, thus making it hardcore. Ten albums in they know what they are doing.

The attitude empowering the chug to the title track does have a dose of Discharge-style aggression to it, so it will win over fans of traditional hardcore. These riffs give you something to hook you in. The vocals stick to a bark that sits back in the guitars so you are not looking for them to draw you into the songs.

“A Day in the Life of an Arse” charges straight ahead at a brisk pace to run you over. They are plenty angry enough, but in terms of songwriting, the previous song is more compelling. This song is just dynamically monochrome. There is more of a deliberate setup for the intro to “Unruled and Unamed,” once the song kicks in, the drumming is full speed ahead, and it feels rushed. There feels like there is more of a rock n roll purpose to “Skinchanger.” The riffs are more memorable, and the vocals might feel like more of an afterthought, but it works. The raw punk-infused work ethic flows through the intensity they keep burning.

“Your God is a Corpse” might hammer the point home with overbearing speed, but “Nail Bomb” has a little more hook to it, despite being pretty straightforward. Not every band needs to be at the Pink Floyd level of songwriting, this band puts just enough in for this to work, while the bulk of who they are works off the momentum they attack the songs with. It works better than when they stomp the gas and rush through “Cyanide Messiah” or “Sea of Rust.” They prove themselves effective at the blunt force riffing, which should please their fans who own their other ten albums, this one will prove to be what they expect.

Buy the album here:
https://www.metalblade.com/wolfbrigade/

7 / 10
WIL CIFER
Follow Wil’s work here: