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Track Listing: Vicious Companions Skull Crusher Full Moon Possession Jekyll & Hyde Absinthe Tales From The Crypt Nocturnal Rites Road To Hell False Preacher Hope To Die K-141 Kursk

Wolf is part of the NWOTHM (New wave of traditional heavy metal) movement with bands like RAM. Wolf first caught my attention when I heard that Roy Z was working with them on their last album. Roy Z is my favourite producer and I had to check this band out.

With Legions of Bastards, Wolf has set the standard for every band that claims to be a traditional heavy metal band. There are no extravagant effects here. This is metal from real tube amps. Right from the pounding drums in the first song, Vicious Companions to the first solo that takes you back to the 80s.

This album was produced by frontman Niklas Stalvind who has done a brilliant job. Ravenous was done by Roy Z so Niklas had huge shoes to fill. I love how this album sounds.

Niklas Stalvind's vocals are absolutely spectacular. His voice is more heavy metal than most albums from the 80s. A lot of bands that claim to be traditional heavy metal now have the instruments down but the vocals are always lacking. That isn't the case here. Niklas is the new generation's Dickinson meets Halford. The twin guitar attack of Johannes LosbŠck and Niklas Stalvind and the pounding rhythm section of Anders Modd and Richard Holmgren have managed to push heavy metal within its own limits to a whole new level with songs like Full Moon Possession and Jekyll and Hyde.

Everything has been done in Heavy Metal so it is difficult to set yourself apart without ripping off other bands. Wolf seems to have broken off any chains that were present on the last few albums. So how does a band top a masterpiece like their last effort Ravenous? They write an album that doesn't have a single filler song. After my first listen, I immediately thought of Judas Priest's Painkiller album because that is the only other album that has tons of soloing that blends in perfectly without sounding like the other sub-par albums that tend to have guitarists try to show off their "chops". If you get off on the sounds of old school Judas Priest, you will love this album. This album has 11 standout songs that make you want to crank your amp and destroy everything. I usually find fault with at least 1 song in every album because it doesn't fit in with the rest or it plain sucks. I cannot praise this album enough. Huge choruses, face-melting solos, brilliant vocals and riffs that will be the standard from now on are a few things that you can expect when you listen to Wolf's Legions Of Bastards.

Do yourself a favour and pick this one up on Vinyl and listen to it the way metal is supposed to be heard. My top 5 songs from this album are : Absinthe, Jekyll and Hyde, Skullcrusher, Hope to Die and Full Moon Possession.