ALBUM REVIEW: …Our Fault – 2 Wolves

Following a five-year sabbatical, Finnish death metal group 2 WOLVES are back with their fourth studio album …Our Fault. After the departure of lead singer Ilkka Valkonen during the early stages of recording for their third album, the band decided they would continue the work without a replacement, and a new lineup completed and released the record back in 2014. Following on from a number of tours, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes, with Valkonen returning as lead vocalist, and 2 WOLVES are finally ready to release …Our Fault.

…Our Faults begins with Unwritten Names, which starts gentle with the riffs nowhere near as skull crushing as many would expect and is actually quite rhythmic. Valkonen really grabs your attention as any good front man should, his voice really helping the track to progress and having that perfect balance of singing as well as the more aggressive vocal styles. The track follows into Strange Patterns, which surprisingly begins with a gentle acoustic and continues for a good while before the percussion and bass all come in and the pace gets turned up rapidly. There is definitely much more of a death metal vibe in this track, the riffs becoming much heavier and more complex, and the vocals become much harsher as well as a result to really get you headbanging.

There isn’t a title track as such which features on …Our Fault – the closest that comes to it is actually the final song of the record The Fault is Ours. There is an interesting blend of a metal ballad as well as an air of doom which comes into play as well, as well as the other generic death metal elements that rose to prominence earlier on in the record. Valkonen has to switch his vocal style quite drastically and constantly throughout the record as the sound changes.

It isn’t just in the final track though where there is a difference in the sound, in fact it is something that is a common feature throughout the album as a whole. In some of the tracks and at certain points it works well and keeps you on your toes as you listen to it, but at the other end of the spectrum there are parts which make you wonder why there needed to be such a drastic change and you lose track of the song.

…Our Fault itself is okay as a whole, there are plenty of good points which many people will appreciate, but there aren’t really any tracks that massively stand out. It has been a long time in the making from 2 WOLVES but it is certainly an album that could potentially slip through the cracks over the next few months.

Rating: 6/10

…Our Fault is out now via Inverse Records. 

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