In this time of progressive experimental and genre/boundary pushing music, there’s is something to said for some straightforward, blasting black metal in the vein of the classic 90s Scandinavian style. Even is said release is Italian,, on a Korean label and over an year old.

Sicily’s Krigere Wolf have one other release under their belt, 2012s The Ancient Culture to Kill, but this is the first time I’ve heard of the band thanks to a recent pack of promos from Fallen Angel Productions including Elffor and Wendigo, and much like those two releases, it doesn’t do anything spectacular, but it’s solid.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, these guys cull from the Scandinavian Black metal scene, mainly the likes of Marduk, Sacramentum, Dark Funeral, Dissection, Ancient, Naglfar, Immortal etc, with a bit of a Viking/Nordic leaning. It’s cold, crisp and clean clean with polished, razor sharp and slightly melodic black riffs. The focus is tremolo picked blasts with a stern militant aura and the occasional expected war march thrown in to break things up. There’s even a few black n roll solos and grooves thrown in for good measure (“Disciples of the Sacred Fire”).

Vocalist/bassist Rick Constantino has a standard rasp and all of the songs deliver a nice, frosty fervor, but none of them will stick with you. “Impaled Slaves” changes the pace a little and closer intro ‘Whispers of the End” as well as “The End has a Beginning” and closer “At Open Gates” utilize more atmospheric/spoken word parts, but for the most part, its the the likes of “Towards the Black Mass”, “Sacrifice to Valaskjàlf”  and “Blood to the Wolves”  and eventhe more melodic “”Vision of Death” delivering no nonsense, mid 90s Swedish/ Norwegian black metal.

Based on three tracks from a recent Fallen Angels Productions  split release with label mates Waldschrat, Antiquus Scriptum and Notre Amertume, the band is now a one man project,  but the style appears to be the same competent black metal but with a even better production, so I’m actually rather looking forward to what Krigere Wolf does next, as they could be dark horse in the Italian black metal scene.

 

 

[Visit the band's website]

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