30 years is a long time to be doing anything, but it is an especially long time for a hardcore punk band to be surviving.  In a genre that really embraces the “burn out, not fade away” mentality, longevity is a rare thing, but Wolfbrigade (formerly Wolfpack, but that was a long time ago) has the special sauce that keeps the fire burning for over three decades now.  On Life Knife Death, their 11th full-length (including Wolfpack releases), the Swedish quintet are more relevant and revitalized than ever, despite their lengthy tenure.

So then, what path do you go down when you hit this point in the road?  I’m very fond of bringing up bands like Nile and Amon Amarth, who are dependable for their commitment to consistency.  And who could blame them?  They found their niche, they crafted a winning formula, why change now?  Still other bands like Opeth take this moment to try something new and daring, at the risk of alienating a large chunk of the fanbase they have built up.  For Wolbrigade, they kind of play it on both sides of the coin.  Life Knife Death is also the band’s debut release in their new home of Metal Blade Records, so it seems like an opportunity to push themselves in a new creative direction.  Still, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?  Wolfbrigade stay the course of the Motorhead-esque rock n’ roll meets Discharge-ian hardcore punk they have been perfecting for decades, but their approach to the tunes has a new-found looseness and ease that seems to come with being signed to Metal Blade.  “We didn’t really rehearse any of the songs on this album,” says Wolfbrigade.  “We tend to overwork and overanalyze everything that we do, and sometimes we get lost in that process.  This time we wanted to go rough, to capture the raw essence of the song when it’s just out of the womb.  All the blood and gore.”  Blood and gore indeed.  Always timely and pertinent, much of Life Knife Death is influenced by the current geopolitical landscape, as well as the usual anti-religion and misanthropy veins that run deep in the hardcore scene.  This is an album that is all bite, although there is quite a lot of barking as well, courtesy of Micke Dahl’s animalistic vocals.

And speaking of the vocals, I find myself quite enamored with how gruff they are.  Dahl’s voice has aged quite nicely, and while he’s lost none of his edge and ferocity, his rasp has almost smoothed out around the edges.  There’s a mark of maturity to his deep bellows that commands authority and carries the weight of seniority in the genre.  Elsewhere, the guitars rip their way through classic sounding, HM-2 soaked stompy riffage that begs to be stage dived to.  Where they really shine, though, is in the fiery and frenetic lead work.  There is quite a robust sense of melody to Life Knife Death that I was not expecting, but I am very pleasantly surprised by.  Between that and the raucous guitar solos that pepper the twelve tracks on here, the guitar work really keeps my attention held from start to finish.  I mean, literally the first ten seconds of opener “Ways to Die” is a screaming, no-holds-barred, gut-bucket solo that melts your face off, and then the song builds *up* from that.  Truly, the best moments on this album are when the leg weights come off, Rock Lee style, and Wolfbrigade goes full feral d-beat on anyone in range.  It showcases the lack of rehearsal and overthinking on this album in the best way possible.

Life Knife Death is another notch in the bedpost of a band that just keeps on giving.  If anything, this band just keep on getting stronger and stronger with each successive release.  It’s easy to see why they’ve made a home on a label like Metal Blade, and here’s hoping that there’s many more years of gas left in the tank.  The world will absolutely continue to give these fellas something to write about anyway, for better or worse.

— Ian

---

Life Knife Death will be available September 13 on Metal Blade Records.  For more information on Wolfbrigade, check out their Facebook page.