ALBUM REVIEW: Valhalla – Wolftooth
Richmond Indiana’s WOLFTOOTH’s self-titled debut album was a smashing success for the four piece back in 2018. With a huge, looming sound reminiscent of classic, genre defining bands of the seventies, and a desire to make something just as iconic, the band return with second album Valhalla. Will it deliver all the stomping anthems fans of their debut are looking forward to?
The Lamentation of Frigg is a lovely, subdued introduction, setting the scene as sombre, tranquil and contemplative. Reverberating acoustics lead over a whistling penny whistle, raw and ethereal. It’s a short and subtle beginning; The Possession, however, is a much more bombastic affair. Huge, stomping riffs blast out, lead lines snaking in to add a wicked flair, while the rolling gallop of the drum and the rhythm guitar sets things up as a gnarly ride. It’s a great vocal line that accompanies, somewhere between Ozzy Osborne and Geddy Lee. There’s such a hard, unrelenting feeling of old school IRON MAIDEN, and newer bands like THE SWORD in this delightful start.
Pulling through the static, Firebreather punches like true classic rock, big and bold and unafraid to chug. It’s old school down to it’s every chord movement, it’s every thudding bass drum beat. You can feel the passion here, and its good work, but it’s not as spontaneously combustible as its predecessor. Title track Valhalla has much more ambition, it’s heavier and yet allows for those tonal qualities in the vocals to shine through. When it takes a moment to let things die down and allows the bass to fill out, it’s a great change up from the verse, that can admittedly get a little tedious. However, it’s when the guitars sing their solo that pulls this song together in the end.
After a couple of standard feeling tunes, Fear For Eternity brings back a majesty, like listening to some frenzied stallion. Again, the vocals make everything feel reminiscent of seventies psychedelia, while the shredding is all metal. It’s punchy as all hell and ready to battle on. You can probably feel some early BARONESS and REDFANG in there, but the bones of this one is traditional heavy metal with an under belly of some sick stoner rock. Initially, Scylla & Charybdis is a little off the pedal, and ready to swagger. Its confidence is well hidden so don’t be fooled by its initial pacing, as things swiftly sweep into something frenzied and blasted good fun. The way it carries itself is done deftly, changing pace with real skill and creating a torrent of great music that its instantly a hit.
Another big, anthemic start for Molon Labe, nice and beefed up, chugging for all it’s worth, this feels a little like a Ozzy Osborne ballade version on The Trooper by IRON MAIDEN, which is no bad thing, but the punch is a little lacking as things don’t really hit any impressive moments past the intro. Emulating your heroes is one thing, but for an album to become too saturated in a sound akin to pre-existing bands it isn’t the best way to make your mark. Crying Of the Wolves is another homage to BLACK SABBATH. Overall, the first two thirds of this are a little standardised, and really only puts some charge into the final third. There’s nothing wrong with what’s going on here, but moving away from the hell for leather tracks earlier on in the album, or even in the more surreal avenues WOLFTOOTH have ventured down, this doesn’t have its own stamp; this is playing it safe.
Another oddly reminiscent track, The Coven could be a blues rock version of MASTODON’s Blood and Thunder. Now, it might feel like there’s no pleasing some people here, and you can’t exactly claim a chugging chord progression belongs to one band or song, but the fact that a track like this can feel so instantly like another song, but with less originality, makes the overall experience not as impactful. This is really good fun, and sprinkled in some classic harmonic sparring on the guitars, so if you can’t hear the similarities in the verse, then you’ll have no problem with what’s on offer and will just enjoy the music for what it is.
If this feels about to tail off on a pessimistic end, we have Juneau to thank for one final hurrah, as a real spike of entertaining, high spirited heavy music. It’s the perfect demonstration of what WOLFTOOTH can achieve, adding great dynamics and the entire song feels completely their own. The influences are genre based, not band or song specific. WOLFTOOTH themselves define who they are and what they can achieve at the final moment, and leave you with a satisfying, headbanging end of the record.
There is a huge amount of potential here; WOLFTOOTH have proven over both their albums they have the chops for this. However, in this second record, it’s still too close to classics we’ve heard from the giants of the seventies when they really could have pushed the boat out a little further instead of playing it safe. Where Valhalla holds its own is when it strays away from sounding like an alternative reality BLACK SABBATH and starts to embrace some of their own weirdness and ferocity.
Rating: 6/10
Valhalla is set for release May 22nd via Ripple Music.
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