Beatdown has always been a hit and miss genre for me. I have been known to like several beatdown bands in the past like Desolated, Solemn Promise and Carbine but after spending countless hours watching generic local bands the genre just drift by me. Not before giving me a cheeky spin kick to the face as it passed me, obviously. However, Wolfpack peaked my interest with the release of their single Oblomov off the album, Loathe.
I knew the drill by now. Beatdown = one big ole mosh session. Then Loathe started and shatter that illusion almost instantly. Intro/Cursed is heavy on the chugs but has an eerie undertone with the distant chords before Wolfpack brings everything together for the first pit riff. You’ll find the drums leading the charge on songs like Oblomov and Viper Choir. A barrage of blast beat breakaways gives the listener a few seconds of adrenaline fuelled built up while the guitars slam away chugs. Hell, there’s a section about halfway through Les Fleurs Du Mal that triggers like a death metal song.
There is certainly a bleak element to the album as even the most fight club ready songs are broken up with bridges and fills from some distant void of darkness. Guitars often leap out of the main riff to bring some calmer but darker moments. The use of bridges in Pessimist and Doomed makes the breakdowns and chuggier palmed riffs hit harder than a buck shot to the chest.
So, no need to threat those all-important breakdowns are still incorporate into most songs. Their impact is brought to new level of crushing heaviness with the aid of the gritty vocal mosh call outs. Actually, the whole album is brought down like a hammer on concrete by vocalist Hadrien whose thick voice punches through the instruments with stony scorn.
Structure is the key to Loathe as a whole. Wolfpack have crafted an album with ups and downs, ins and outs. Every now and again a song changes the tone of the album. The smash your knuckles into the ground songs are met with Hover Over Me, Interlude and the final titular track. All three songs carry a weight of sadness with them. Focusing more on melody and build than the musical equivalent of a baseball bat to the face.
I was content with my plan of moshing the album away and moving on. Instead it pulls the whole ‘this album is more than breakdowns’ trick. As the breakdowns tease the nerve endings of every pit warrior, the darker riffs and atmosphere gives the likes of me somewhere to dwell. Wolfpack have lent outside the pit to find their own world of melancholic melodies amongst the onslaught of bitter twisted anger.
Score: 7.5/10
Everything Heavy 