Review: Sonic Wolves ‘III’
So, I’m sitting here, amidst some torrential rain and wind, power outages and general mayhem in the streets. Apocafuckenlyptic, and very fucking hairy out there right now, so best not get outta the boat! But all that’s ok; here at Hacienda El Jefe, I have beer and food (although I can’t guarantee food….). An AFL game, whose result I couldn’t give a monkey’s arse about, is playing silently in the background and the new Sonic Wolves album cranked and keeping me company.
This Italian power trio, who are over a decade old but new to my ears, are a fuckin’ rockin’ bunch. Formed by former Ufomammut drummer Vita, bassist/vocalist Kayt Vigil (who also did time in Pentagram) and joined by current guitarist Nico Nigra, together they have whipped up III. Think high energy but gritty rock with some serious crotch-grabbing metal overtones, smokin’ and stony guitar sounds, cracking playing and a whole fistful of cool tunes. Kayt rips things up on vox as well while laying down some thundering basslines and the complex songwriting owes a bit to the prog world, but I’m not gonna hold that against ‘em!
The savage intro to Shapeshifter kinda knocked me around a bit. Punchy and hostile with a snarling riff to go with it. This motherfucker would be a serious ball tearer live! The busy but liquid bass runs a thread through the track, holding it all tight whilst the drums and guitar go to town. I’m mightily impressed by the drumming on this track, and for the whole shebang to be honest.
O.B.E. is great for the first five minutes, with some killer wah-led soloing shooting through it. Driving and grunty, definitely my kinda scum! But on the downside, the second half is a trippy dreamscape, which choked up the pace of III a bit, especially as this tune is an instrumental. Full marks on the playing though. They soon get back on the rock ‘n’ roll train with Dead To The World. Nico is a guitarist who believes too much overplaying is not even close to enough, but that’s all good with me; the quality of the playing is the payoff!
high energy but gritty rock with some serious crotch-grabbing metal overtones…
The lumbering, monolithic riffs that drive Dark Recollection made this about my fave tune on the record. It rolls along nicely and is short and straight to the point. Heavy Lies The Crown is borderline funky and a very cool half of a song, but trips itself up after two minutes with another lysergic dissection.
The rock comes back into play pretty fucking quickly though with The Ten Doors. Lotsa rockin’ drum fills and searing guitar. Some over-fuzzed bass serves as the intro to Won’t Be Their Fool, yet another of the foot-to-the-floor rock songs on III. This is a bit of a toe-tapper too. Kinda reminded me of Motörhead’s The Chase Is Better Than The Catch with its boogie feel. The closing number Gotta Do It Right is another straight-up rock song and a good way to go out too.
Sonic Wolves have impressed the hell outta me with this album, aside from a couple of black spots, but that’s just me. Don’t let my griping put you off; it’s a great rock ‘n’ roll record and should appeal to a lot of types with the kinda broad spectrum tunes they write. It sounds killer too!
Label: Argonauta Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: El Jefe
