Year: 2020
Total Time: 40:43
Label: Napalm Records

WOLFHEART’s mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen, just a few months after releasing the new album of his other solo project DAWN OF SOLACE, has already prepares and unleashes the new, 5^th in only 7 years of existence album of his main nowadays band after the successful “Constellation Of The Black Light” from 2018. The line up remains solid with only addition “our guy”, Mr. Vaggelis Karzis (ex-ROTTING CHRIST, FULL HOUSE BREW CREW) on guitar.

As we all know, Finland is a country well known for the forests, the cold and its melancholy, something that is reflected in most of the metal bands we know that hail from there. WOLFHEART could not be an exception to this rule, so now, in those 8 songs lasting around 41 minutes we get exactly that. Pure, atmospheric, epic in many parts, melodic Death Metal with the classic Finnish stamp all over it.

The album starts with its first single called “Hail Of Steel” which despite its title and video clip is not really that epic but stands high for its great guitar work and the melodies even though it’s a speedy one. The “Horizon On Fire” that goes next, after a one minute lasting introduction, puts the pedal to the metal showing the more extreme face of the band even though it soften towards the end, while “Reaper” with its dark melodies and the background keyboards makes the appropriate atmosphere that the title suggest. Next comes on our heads “The Hammer” one more glorious track with a killer combination of speed and melodies, so the following instrumental “Eye Of The Storm” is kind of important in order to get our speakers and heads into position again. Next track is “Born Of Fire” the groovy and epic moment of the album, this one I would prefer it to stay on its path all the way as I didn’t like the break and the faster change in the middle, while “Arrows of Chaos” that goes next is not bad, but didn’t impress me either. The album closing track is called “Ashes”, one more nice melodic, dark and atmospheric piece, the perfect choice I believe for finale. I assume this will be their closing track on tour, before they will return for their encore!

So, “Wolves Of Karellia” is an album full of winter, cold, melancholy, war and death, highly inspired by the Winter War of autumn 1939 when former USSR invaded Finland but got smashed and finally declared peace only three and a half months later. It sums up where the previous works of the band stopped and takes it a couple of steps further. All friends and fans of the band and the melodic extreme sounds in the likes of INSOMNIUM,, ROTTING CHRIST AMORPHIS and so on should definitely check it out, I am more than sure that it will be in all 2020 favorites lists and not only for this year !

Rating: 8,5/10
Editor: Antonis Livanios
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