WOLFCHANT — Call of the Black Winds (review)

WOLFCHANT — Call of the Black Winds album cover

Album · 2011 · Folk Metal

5/5 · 2011-02-26
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Call of the Black Winds is the fourth full-length album from Wolfchant, released in 2011. This album kind of represents a new era for the band since the premise of it is best described as a band seeking to expand their sound, and they’ve done this by bringing it a second vocalist alongside established frontman Lokhi to provide clean vocals alongside Lokhi’s growls. The new member here is Nortwin, who is actually one Michael Seifert, singer with German Power Metal act Rebellion among others. He sang as a guest on several songs from the previous Wolfchant album Determined Damnation, so he shouldn’t be a stranger to existing fans of the band. Well he’s at least branded as providing clean vocals, but anyone familiar with this guy’s previous work will know he’s no Power Metal fairy. So here’s the million pound question, does this approach work for Wolfchant?

In short, yes it does! Lokhi’s growls and Nortwin’s cleans complement each other really well and both of them are on top form throughout the record. Coupled with the music that is backing them it allows Wolfchant to produce a really epic sound that blends several styles of metal music into one package. Wolfchant’s main style is a brand of folk metal that they create using Folk style melody played on metal instruments, but Lokhi’s vocals are typically leaning towards Black Metal, with very occasional switches towards Death Metal styled growls, whereas Nortwin, not unexpectedly given his background, provides the sort of vocals that you’d expect from a Traditional Heavy or Power Metal band. But also musically here, in contrast to an earlier album such as A Pagan Storm, is not so much folk. Keyboards are features heavily in some places giving these parts of the album a symphonic feel. Other songs have a Power Metal feel to them despite the growls, so it’s quite the package of variety, and despite some overall changes in sound Call of the Black Winds still manages to feel very much like a Wolfchant album.

The album opens with Black Winds Rising (Prelude), a short instrumental piece composed mostly of synthesiser. It’s one of the better intro pieces I’ve heard in some time, sounding pretty epic as a standalone and although it surges straight into the first proper song, Stormwolves, doesn’t sound like the two are part of the same track. With Stormwolves Wolfchant hit their stride right from the off and they never lose it. This is an excellent piece that harks back to their style on earlier albums complete with those lead guitar melodies. The chorus, sung by Nortwin, is pretty addictive and it’s an instant highlight of the album.

The next two tracks are Eremit and Black Fire, the two the band released prior to the album to promote it. These two really whetted my appetite for this album to the point where I have to say I haven’t wanted to get my hands on an album so much as I have this one in a long time. Eremit is one of a handful of songs where the band switches to German lyrics and both of them have less of a folk feel to them. This was initially a surprise and did make me wonder if an entire new direction was in the works, but as Stormwolves proved it’s not an entire new direction, but an album that holds to no rules or formula. And that works very well for them.

Naturgewalt, another German track, is one of the most extreme pieces on the album, with parts that lean towards Death Metal. Both vocalist deliver aggressive vocals throughout and somehow despite there being no Industrial feel to the song it brings mind to Rammstein, especially with Nortwin’s vocals on the chorus. It’s then back to a folk metal sound for Heathen Rise, which sees Nortwin taking things down a bit for some more melodic vocals that fit well with the chorus even if its lyrics never fail to bring mind to comedy rock band Tenacious D with their similar lines of “this is tribute”. There are some great folk passages in this one as well, especially in the outro.

Never Will Fall breaks the pattern of alternating English and German lyrics. A folk sound is created here as well but it’s through use of symphonies from the synth of Gvern. The lyrics fit the mood for the style as well. Die Nacht Der Wölfe leans more towards this same style as well.

The Last Farewell features some great folksy acoustics and more of Nortwin’s cleaner vocals and he sings this one almost on his own and is also the closest that you’ll get to a full ballad on Call of the Black Winds and that said, this is still a pretty heavy song. As if to contrast with it Der Stahl In Meinem Feinde features Lokhi more heavily than Nortwin and sees the band pushing things towards their more extreme direction again. This is another pretty decent song, but out of this beast of an album, it’s the only track that comes across as something of a downer.

They save their longest track for last though and it’s the title track. At almost nine minutes long this track features many of the elements of the album welded into the one track and the result is one of the most epic tracks that Call of the Black Winds offers and it brings the album to a spectacular conclusion.

On paper this may sound like a bit of a mixed bag and in a way it is with all the different sounds the band incorporates. Even with the addition of Nortwin the vocals still generally contrast with the music, but like with their previous releases this is why I like it. It doesn’t get boring and while it still has that Wolfchant feel to it the album comes across as something new and fresh, and not a re-make of older albums. If I was to describe Call of the Black Winds in three words they would be: epic; addictive; amazing. It is an absolute gem of an album but for entirely different reasons to their second album A Pagan Storm that I rated with the same score. Really great stuff indeed and I expect this won’t be leaving my stereo for awhile.

There also exists a limited edition of Call of the Black Winds that comes with a DVD. Some sources prior to releases reported this DVD has coming with a complete live show. let's get that straight right now, it is not a complete live show, far from it. It's actual just five songs from two festival appearances. Two songs from 2007 and three from 2009. Let's start with 2007.

Wolfchant here is the Wolfchant from the era of A Pagan Storm, a five piece band. They play the title track from the aforementioned album and Praise to All from Bloody Tales of Disgraced Lands. The sound quality here is not that great to be honest and the lead guitar work that really makes Wolfchant's older songs special often feels drowned out.

The 2009 set focuses on Determined Damnation. Nortwin (as Michael Seifert of course) is present as a guest in all three tracks and his Rebellion then bandmate Uwe Lulis makes a guest appearance in two. The songs are are World in Ice, Fate of the Fighting Men and Rebellion, a Grave Digger cover. The sound quality is better here but the release feels somewhat botched and unprofessional. The song titles appear on the screen at the start of the songs and they look like they've just been done in Windows Movie Maker and if you watch very carefully, even can even see the words 'Sample Text' pop up every now and then.

There is also the traditional Making of the Album video that is a popular inclusion on bonus DVD's as well as the music video for World in Ice, which is pretty much just clips of the band playing live with some effects thrown in and the studio recording over the top.

Overall the bonus content of Call of the Black Winds is a major let down. Fortunately the bit we care about is the actual album and that as stated in the above review is sensational. But this limited edition is only worth picking up if the price between the two isn't that different (at the time of writing it seems to be about 1 Pound or Euro more than a regular edition). Otherwise just stick with the masterpiece that is the actual CD. You're not missing much with this DVD.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)