#Wolfcross 🇸🇪 From the North

Band: Wolfcross
Title: From the North
Label: Grind to Death Records
Release date: 4 November 2022
Country: Sweden
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

It’s seeing “Black Metal from Sweden” and I can’t resist, sorry… Everyone has their weaknesses. And here I am, listening to and reviewing the debut album by Wolfcross, a quite new band involving Jonas Bergkvist doing vocals and playing bass. He is also the bass player in Desolator, Soliloquium, Ending Quest, so not a newbie in the scene. The other band members are: Galerius and Anoth at six strings, and Nebirus playing drums. Let’s see what these guys are offering with their debut album “From the North”…

First thing I can tell you is, this is Black Metal with an undeniable Swedish style, and I can notice right from the start the cold and the darkness that Wolfcross deliver with every damn wicked riff, and sometimes the guitar tone reminds me to another Swedish band in the Extreme Metal scene but as I don’t like making comparisons, you better listen to them and simply enjoy the ride. Is it good or bad when a band’s music makes you think about another one? I don’t know, it’s only my impression (and in this case it’s simply great).

The album opens with “So I Return”, and you feel instantly frozen by those guitars and the very audible bass, while drums are still restraining but you are craving for them to unleash their full power… and when a wicked scream tears the air, you know you are in for a great Black Metal journey. Riffs are of an infectious kind, and gnarled vocals create a dark and sinister environment. That’s a great starting point. With “Old Sinner”, things continue that path and it seems that drums are setting a faster pace at times. Let me tell you that I find myself enjoying them a lot both in the fastest moments and when Nebirus plays some “slower” variations. I personally think he nails it in “Enochian Key”, he’s damn fast and technical.

All along these 10 songs with a total running time of 50 minutes there are some moments of pure dark delight:

-the freezing and obscure opening for “Magna Mater Daemonum”, just a naked and echoed guitar harmony underlined by those low notes, creating an eerie effect, makes your blood paralyze from running for some seconds.

-the crazy riffs and frantic drums in “Possessed by Death”, this is a killer track that I guess will be resonating in my head for days (in fact, it is already). And the vocals wow, just wow… can’t help but feeling “possessed” by those raspy dark screams, seems like Jonas’ throat is tearing into pieces!

-the totally insane track that “Svart Speed Metal” is, from start to finish: crazy speed tempo and the fact that you’ll be repeating “Black Speed Metal! Yaoooorghh! Svart Speed Metal!” like a maniac again and again…

-and, if you thought that the two last songs may only be fillers (because of the length of the album), you just discover that they have some of the most precious content: “Heathen Heart” is a song with great epic tunes, the clean vocals confer it those special vibes, like a heathen ode to the ancestors, with really catchy choruses and, again, varied drums tempos and brilliant guitar playing. The closing theme “From the North” also contains some of those epic vibes, specially near the very end. Great way to end!

I really like Wolfcross sounding evil and dark, and I think this is an impressive debut for a band coming from up North, where some of the evilish, darkest and coldest Black Metal is made. Don’t miss this album if you want to feel that icy mortal grip embracing you like the ice and snow embrace the cold Swedish forests in winter. I give it 8,5/10 Sílvia

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8,5/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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