Wolftooth: Blood & Iron

Hailing from Richmond, Indiana USA, Heavy Metal outfit Wolftooth have returned with their own mix of Proto-Heavy Metal and Epic Doom. With Fat Sludgy riffs, driving drums and fantastic melodic vocals in a similar style to bands like Eternal Champion, Khemmis, Pallbearer and Atlantean Kodex. Actually the band shares a lot in common with these bands. Whether by accident or from direct influence is unimportant, the fact is that these bands are doing a great job representing the genre and so is Wolftooth here on Blood & Iron. All the songs on Blood & Iron have an expansive quality to them. Rich with storytelling and the feeling that it’s a window into a much larger universe of myths and legends.

Blood & Iron kicks off with “Ahab� and immediately we get a taste of the Black Sabbath inspired riffage and for a moment I was worried that it was gonna be too generic and too derivative because that opening riff has been played by every guitarist ever, I think. However, it doesn’t take long for the band to put my mind at ease again when the verse comes in and those great confident and melodic vocals create a familiar yet unique enough of a ride to allow the full immersion to continue. The Vocal work from guitarist Chris Sullivan and drummer Johnny Harrod is the real standout on this album. Great soaring melodies riding high over the classic heavy metal and epic doom metal riffing underneath, and “Ahab� is a great starting point to highlight this. The song also changes pace halfway through and becomes a more ethereal landscape with harmonized guitars and an overall more grandiose and epic feel. Even having some great choir-like passages to end the song. “Hellespont� then takes up the baton and tells another epic tale, this time with Xerces as the star of the show. Again the riffing is done with straight to the point simplicity but executed with a powerful confidence and obvious love of the genre that just feels right. Again those vocals carry the whole thing into another dimension and again they throw in more of that expanded epicness and choral thing into the track and it works beautifully. This is a common approach through the majority of the album. “Broken Sword� sees the band leaning into some Thrash elements and it’s done seamlessly. I’m not sure what happened to the drums in “The Voyage�, a cool song but it sounds like a bit of a fumble at the beginning, perhaps it’s a production issue. That brings me to my only criticism of the album. The drum sound is a bit inconsistent and lacking at times and my main gripe is the occasional lack of bottom end throughout parts of the album. The bass player, Terry McDaniel, has been relegated to the nether regions of the mix for portions of the album. When he is audible he seems to be doing some good work but sometimes the riffs are lacking some of the power because the bass is either sitting too far back in the mix or the actual tone of the bass doesn’t have enough meat on it. At least for my tastes anyway.

Overall Blood & Iron is a very enjoyable album, with great songwriting and powerful performances from the band. I would highly recommend this album to fans of the bands mentioned above and anyone who likes classic Heavy Metal, Doom and Epic Doom.

WOLFTOOTH is:
Terry McDaniel- Bass
Jeff Cole- Guitars
Johnny Harrod-Vocals, Drums
Chris Sullivan- Vocals, Guitars

track listing:
1. Ahab
2. Hellespont
3. Blood & Iron
4. A King's Land
5. Broken Sword
6. The Voyage
7. Winter White
8. Garden of Hesperides
9. The Mare

Added: January 15th 2022
Reviewer: Benjamin Dudai
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 853
Language: english

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