DEATH WOLF
IV: COME THE DARK

Although it's been five long years since Death Wolf's last album, III: Östergötland, the band should require little introduction. Started at the dawn of the new millennium by Marduk's Morgan Håkansson under the moniker Devil's Whorehouse as a tribute to the deathpunk sound of Samhain and the Misfits, following the band's The Howling debut EP they soon evolve beyond their half-covers repertoire into a deadly force all their own. In 2011, after two albums and two EPs under the Devil's Whorehouse moniker, a change in name was long overdue, and the far-more-fitting Death Wolf was chosen. Wasting no time, three albums followed in almost as many years: Death Wolf (2011), II: Black Armored Death (2013), and III: Östergötland (2014).

But, as is sometimes the case, the deadliest beasts need their slumber, and at long last Death Wolf reawaken with IV: Come the Dark. Right from the very first throttling notes, IV: Come the Dark explodes with a ferocity and finesse that suggest those years of slumber were indeed fruitful. Clear and cutting, Death Wolf are in fine form here, effortlessly crafting one dark anthem after another with their signature blend of urban-wasteland heaviness and moody-yetincendiary hooks. At once metal, punk, rock, and goth simultaneously and yet none of 'em in any conventional sense of those words, IV: Come the Dark bewitches the imagination with a deceptively earworming sense of style; in a strange, upside-down world (or a world where simply everything is RIGHT) can one imagine most/all of these songs on the radio.

But alas, we live in a doomed world, and never will Death Wolf reign across the radio... but their reasserted dominance is nearly certain with the arrival of IV: Come the Dark, as never before has the band sounded so commanding and confident, each of these 11 anthems brimming with a granite-thick gleam that underlines their power and professionalism.