Review Wolfchant - Determined Damnation 2009

Tracks
1. Determination Begins
2. World In Ice
3. Until the End
4. Determined Damnation
5. In War
6. Fate of the Fighting Man
7. Kein Engel hört dich flehen
8. A Raven's Flight
9. Never Too Drunk
10. Schwerter der Erde
11. Auf Blut gebaut
12. Under the Wolves Banner

Band:
Lokhi - vocals
Skaahl - lead guitar
Derrmorh - rhythm guitar, Acoustic guitar
Norgahd - drums, keyboard and backing vocals
Bahznar - Bass guitar

Discography:
The Fangs of the Southern Death (2004)
The Herjan Trilogy (EP) (2004)
Bloody Tales of Disgraced Lands (2005)
A Pagan Storm (2007)

Info
The limited digipak version contains the following bonus tracks:
13. Devour*
14. Warcry*
Produced by Uwe Lulis at Black Solaris Studio

Released 04/24/09
Reviewed 05/04/09

Links:
wolfchant-metal.com
myspace
Youtube
Last-FM
massacre

German band Wolfchant are chanting about wolves, well one might guess that they would be something of a power- or folk metal band and the description of Pagan from Massacre may also indicate that it is something like that. And the album starts promising if you like that premise and the introduction to the first track is also promising of the folky power metal side but then the singer opens his mouth and the record is ruined, more or less.

Well, harsh words but lets look back for a second and look at how this band sounds. Musically they are rooted on the classical side, very melodic when it comes to the instrumental side of things add to that dark grunting vocals. Instrumentally I can say that they sound very much like power metal and that is what I was hoping for when I heard this band for the first time.

The major problem for this record is this fact that they mix the positive instrumental side with dark and menacing vocals, this just doesn’t mix well. Maybe I do not understand what it is all about, isn’t that what they always say when reviewers give bad reviews and maybe I don’t understand. There is at least one thing about this record that I can’t understand and that is this fact, why this strange mix of musical styles? I wonder if the guys even know that.

I believe this band would improve if they either change the vocal style to either a clean vocalist or someone more aggressive and less deep, or if they change the music to something slower, something deeper and darker. As it is now it is something in between, fast and positive music with deep, dark and menacing vocals which just doesn’t mix well, the music just doesn’t work like this and I cannot really understand why no one noticed this when this album was being created.

Well I may not understand what it is all about, positive music with dark and morose vocals may be what pagan metal is all about and in that case it surely is nothing for me as I don’t like what I hear. I know that this band has positive aspects as the parts where they use clean vocals it works very well and at those moments you really start wondering what it is all about when it comes to this band, why don’t they use clean vocals for the major part? It is strange for sure.

In the end however, I can’t really say much positive about the wolf chanters and I will just leave it with the notation that the music they do just doesn’t float their boat.

HHHHHHH