Wolves Like Us

Spawned from the remains of folded Norwegian bands such as Amulet and JR Ewing, Oslo’s Wolves Like Us first caught our ears in 2010. Their debut album, Late Love is 40 minutes of grand, pounding, desert rock-influenced hardcore. It’s good. It’s very, very good.

‘Burns Like A Paper Rose’ is a frantic start to the album – all gruff vocals and punchy guitars with an intricate riff underlining the song throughout – before the tumbling rumble of ‘Deathless’ cuts right through with brilliant fury and the upbeat ‘My Enemy’ blazes a new trail through the end of the album. The crashing cacophony that opens ‘Gone To Dust’ for instance, gives way to Larsh Kristensen’s almost tuneless voice. It’s a strange style but it fits absolutely, even if it may be a slightly acquired taste.

There’s a great spacey vibe and genuine feeling to the tunes that acts as the perfect foil to the comfortable musical aggression on Late Love. What’s most important about the album is that all ten of the songs have their place. It might seem cliché for me to say there is no filler and that you will have no respite from the album but it’s true. The low-slung tone of ‘Sin After Sin’ provides a change of pace but you’ll find no ballads here. Oh no. Wolves Like Us close the album with a near-eight minute “epic” of sorts with ‘To Whore With Foreign Gods’. It’s menacing and ominous in tone but finishes the album perfectly.

Along with Trap Them’s stunning Darker Handcraft, it’s possible that Prosthetic Records have released two of the finest records of 2011. We dunno what they’re putting in the office coffee machine but we’re more than happy for this trend to continue because Late Love is a brilliant debut. Despite their collectively accrued experience, we’ve got our fingers crossed that this is just the start for Wolves Like Us.

5.5/6

Sounds like: Helmet, Cult Of Luna, Planes Mistaken For Stars [by: thrashhits]





[2011] Late Love

01 - Burns Like A Paper Rose
02 - Deathless
03 - Sin After Sin
04 - Old Dirty Paranoia
05 - Secret Handshakes
06 - Shiver In The Heat
07 - We Speak In Tongues
08 - Gone To Dust
09 - My Enemy
10 - To Whore With Foreign Gods

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