ALBUM REVIEW: The Enemy: Reality – Wolfbrigade

Of all of the bands to come out of the brilliant Swedish D-beat/crust scene, WOLFBRIGADE are perhaps one of the better bands within not only that scene, but the genre as a whole. In spite of two brief hiatuses in their near 25 year long career and a few lineup changes, the band have managed to maintain their status at the forefront of the genre, in no small part due to their fantastic recorded output, with seven albums and two EPs cementing their legacy as one of the best acts within the genre. Their latest album, The Enemy: Reality, is another great addition to their back catalogue, proving that WOLFBRIGADE are every bit as acerbic and vicious as ever.

Sum of All Vices is an incredibly strong opener, beginning with a bellicose roar that gives way to speed driven guitars and thunderous drumming, which provide an excellent, aggressive backdrop to the monstrous delivery of the vocals. It’s a great way to kick this album off, and sets a lofty bar for the rest of the music to overcome. Fire Untamed with its crushing, thrashy sound and chaotic edge, follows in much the same vein as the albums first track, with some fantastic guitars creating a dense sound that complements the abrasive approach of the vocals really well. There’s a sense of urgency to the music that only serves to make this song sound even more intense.

The Wolfman is a fast and furious punk track with great, grating vocals and slightly jarring guitars, all backed by some impressive, authoritative drumming. It’s a powerful and robust piece of music from start to finish, providing an intense and driven offering with a thick, visceral edge. Hammer to the Skull sees the band make more prominent use of a thick, sludgy bass sound to build a monolithic track, with the guitars adding plenty of hard rock flourishes in the way of some tight, melodic hooks, which help to make this song a very early stand out on an already great record. Narcissistic Breed possesses a far more feral sound, building on the more adventurous riffing of the previous song, resulting in a razor sharp and catchy slab of caustic hardcore punk. It’s a short, sharp shock of truly rabid musicianship on all fronts which grabs the listeners attention, proving to be unrelentingly fierce from the first note to the last.

Nightmare of Wolves, with its fuller chords and steadier, punishing percussion, is a noticeably more epic affair than the five songs that came before it, with the jarring contrast of the vocals giving this song an amazing sound, adding a little bit more variety to the albums sound, and drawing the listener back in very well. Doomsday Dominion is a great, groove-laden piece of music with lots of amazing vocals and guitars really carrying the song, giving this song a dark and aggressive sound that it’s hard not to love. It’s not only one of the albums most memorable offerings, but also one of its most intense.

Wells of Despair bursts out of the speakers, proving to be an extremely brief, yet brutal and brilliant, track which, with its dizzying guitar and drum sections, is a cacophonous and heady number that, in spite of its very short running time, leaves its mark on the record as a whole. Human Beast, a song that is initially bleak and brooding, eventually launches into very familiar musical territories, with some rabid vocals and soaring guitars acting as obvious highlights here, all backed up by some of the best drumming on the whole record, which gives this song a solid foundation on which the rest of the music can be built. It’s a fantastic track with a strong, climactic feel to it, that not only gives the album one of its very best outings, but also sets the listener up for the tenth and final track on the record, Hunt the Hunter; this last song is a monolithic track, with a huge guitar sound and bombastic drumming making this particular song sound absolutely massive. It’s a whirlwind of energetic and frenzied music with some great, visceral vocals that only add to this songs unerring aggression. It’s a very good end to an equally impressive album, and it’s hard not to want to hear more music after the last notes on here have faded away.

This is yet another fantastic album from a band that already have a well established reputation for producing excellent music. The music is, as ever, just as visceral, angry and ferocious as any of their earlier works, with many of the songs on here, notably the likes of Hammer to the Skull, Narcissistic Breed, Nightmare Wolves and Doomsday Dominion, standing amongst the best material the band has put out over the course of the last two or three albums. Whereas there’s a tendency for many bands who have been around for as long as these guys have been to lose some of their venom and aggression, WOLFBRIGADE clearly haven’t lost any of their intensity and viciousness, and The Enemy: Reality is every bit as good, both musically and in terms of raw emotion, as their early work. If this record is anything to go by, WOLFBRIGADE are not going to be running out of steam any time soon.

Rating: 8/10

The Enemy: Reality is set for release on November 8th via Southern Lord.

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