ALBUM REVIEW: A Quiet Place To Die – Alpha Wolf

Such is the variety and depth to hardcore in 2020, that you can start asking the question: is this the best it’s ever been? Part of that conversation are ALPHA WOLF. While the likes of JESUS PIECE and GULCH carry more standard genre tropes, these Aussies bring something new to the table. They’ve flirted with the concept of breaking out for a while now, but make no mistake – A Quiet Place To Die releases the chains.

What’s most exciting about this new wave of hardcore is that we’ve heard so little like it before. Taking the low end of HUMANITY’S LAST BREATH and mixing it with the brutality of MESHUGGAH seemed fantastical 10 years ago. But ALPHA WOLF gift wrap their breakdowns with an extreme metal meets tech noise charisma. This record pays as much homage to djent as it does metalcore, and it makes for a barbaric ordeal.

There’s almost a sense of hilarity in the record’s explosive opening. The title track comically eases you in before igniting on a whim. Its mid tempo riffs are propped up even further by a snare drum sound that, if you were told was actually a shotgun firing, you wouldn’t question it. There’s no let up from here either, as Creep opens with a rallying cry from vocalist Lochie Keogh, you’re thrown back into the middle of his crosshairs. His screams of “I’m on the edge of a knife” portray a decaying sanity – and his mosh call of “sleep with one eye open” is set to pull venues apart.

The swinging fists keep coming, too. Golden Fate: Isolate‘s subject matter is dark enough without its unrelenting bite. Then lead single Akudama materialises to throw some groove tech into the mix. It’s not until the more composed Bleed 4 You turns up that you get a seconds break from the chaos. That’s not say it’s the obligatory chill song though. Instead ALPHA WOLF take a second to transition, becoming something of a different offering. Album closer, and post-rock bonanza Don’t Ask takes a similar path – and opens doors where you can begin comparisons between the Aussies and the likes of LOATHE. It might not sound like much, but this seven minutes of expansion could become critical to the next step ALPHA WOLF take.

Remaining in the here and now though, the second half of A Quiet Place To Die delightfully piggybacks off the first. Perhaps for some the extremes will outstay their welcome, but you get a sense throughout the record that ALPHA WOLF want you at your most uncomfortable. There’s certainly evidence in that theory when the rhythm of Restricted (R18+) hops sporadically from beat down to two-step.

Who would’ve thought the new wave of extreme metal would start looking like the old guard so soon? The likes of THY ART IS MURDER, WHITECHAPEL, and CARNIFEX might not sound outdated yet – but ALPHA WOLF‘s hunger is starting to push that narrative. A Quiet Place To Die isn’t just a statement of the band’s true arrival, but is one of the great extreme/hardcore records of recent memory. If this is the future being ushered in, we should be welcoming it with open arms.

Rating: 8/10

A Quiet Place To Die is set for release on September 25th via Greyscale Records/Sharptone Records.

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