Album Review: "The Wolf Council" by The Wolf Council

The Wolf Council

From it's earliest days, metal had strong ties to blues and psychedelic music.

Black Sabbath is arguably the first metal band, but of course Led Zeppelin is also a part of this mix.

Aside from high gain guitars the only thing these two bands have in common is a deep love of the blues.

Well musically anyway, they both also had a deep love of achieving altered states of consciousness....

Looking at the path of metal from that point on, it's  hard to see the connection between Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Priest with Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, or The Black Dahlia Murder because there are about 45 degrees of separation between them, but let's look at a band that has one degree of separation from the originators...well maybe two.

The Wolf Council

This is the debut record of The Wolf Council who formed in 2013, signed to their label in 2014, and now are releasing their first album in 2015.

Peopled with veterans of the Twin Cities music scene, they came together and created a stoner metal group.

Fans of Orange Goblin and Baroness are going to find a lot to like about this band.

Musically, there is a resemblance to the Gobliners. The guitars are riffy and drenched in the sweet nectar of the wah wah. The drums never rest and never stop. Always beating that primal heartbeat. The bass tucks under and bridges the ocean between the two.

Vocally is where there's a  hint of the colorful fellows in Baroness. The vocal strains sound a bit like that style, but still with some serious grit and power behind it. It's a perfect melding of the two creating something brand new, like NaCl.

Release: 2/24/15
Genre: Stoner Metal
Label: Static Tension Recordings
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