WOLFCHANT — Bloodwinter (review)

Album · 2017 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2017-01-16
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German metal band Wolfchant have been evolving their sound by leaps and bounds with their last couple of albums Call of the Black Winds (2011) and Embraced by Fire (2013). Firstly they switched to a two vocalist line-up on the former, which also saw some changes in musical direction, the kind that in hindsight make the release sound like quite the transitional album. And on the latter they began to produce music that was mostly their own unique brand of power metal, quite a few steps away from the melodic folk/black metal sound they started with. I tend to think of their style these days as symphonic blackened power metal. Bloodwinter (2017) is their sixth album. It was originally slated for a 2014 release but got delayed, perhaps due to line-up changes within the band.

After spending the last couple of albums growing as a band, Bloodwinter finds Wolfchant now settling down with their new sound. While not a carbon copy of what they did on Embraced by Fire all the elements that made that album are also present here, such as the fast paced and melodic power metal guitar riffs and leads, symphonic elements that if anything are even stronger on this album, and a decidedly blackened feel due to vocalist Lokhi's growling vocals. There's a bit more actual folk again this time though compared to the last album which harkens back to the band's earlier work. Though I have to say that when folk is used on Bloodwinter it actually feels more authentic than on certain past Wolfchant songs. Before they'd often just use folksy melodies played on the guitar, which defined their second album A Pagan Storm (2007). In the vocal department the voices of the two vocalists Lokhi and Nortwin (A.K.A. Michael Seifert of Rebellion) feel more in balanced as Embraced by Fire definitely sounded like Nortwin's album, leaving the band's original vocalist Lokhi sounding like a spare wheel to me. I don't get that same impression on Bloodwinter.

The songs on offer here are sure to please fans who loved the previous album but in comparison I actually find that Bloodwinter doesn't flow quite as well from track to track. I think that may be because Embraced by Fire was much more straight power metal based whereas here the band do often drop their power metal riffs to focus on another element such as the first proper song Schicksalsmacht which has a greater focus on their symphonic metal element until they launch into a full throttle power metal section towards the end of the track. It's one of the songs here that feels the most different compared to anything on Embraced by Fire and might have fit in better on Call of the Black Winds. Wolfchant (A Wolf to Man) follows and brings in stronger power metal elements crossed with slower paced symphonic metal and a brief acoustic bridge. Das Bollwerk adds in the album's first tastes of actual folk. Throughout they tend to rotate these elements, mostly the power and symphonic stuff. As usual the band alternate between English and German language songs.

Bloodwinter is a more varied release from Wolfchant making it in some ways more comparable in intent to Call of the Black Winds even though the actual style is more Embraced by Fire. Variation is often a positive in music, but the album doesn't hit the spot for me as well as Embraced by Fire, which I still see as Wolfchant's best and most epic release. What it is however is a solid follow-up and since it's been several years since we heard from them it's great to get some new music from these guys again.