Wolfnacht - Project Ordensburg (2011)

Perhaps the most enduring of Greece's NSBM acts, Wolfnacht has enjoyed a steady stream of underground interest and has never quite rested on any particular laurels throughout 13 years of output. Some of Athalwolf's earlier works incorporated a heavy punk/race rock influence, and some were almost pure traditional black metal, while others bounced back and forth. In general, I've found that I preferred the more focused efforts like Heidentum and Zeit der Cherusker, or the more symphonic strains of side project Zofos, so I was rather satisfied that he incorporated elements of all three into his latest full-length Project Ordensburg, an album that makes no secret of its bones to pick or its pride to bear.

One of the dominating characteristics here is the use of a groaning, croaking lead vocal which gives off that same decrepit vibe you might feel from Inquisition. But this is more forceful and prominent, less garbled. Athalwolf supports it with the more familiar blackened rasp and in combination it creates a chilling effect to the march of the chords and melodies. However, I will say that I found it more effective on the songs with German lyrics like "Wotans Wildes Heer" rather than the English of "Aryanismos". The keyboards here are well implemented, swells of string and choir that mesh fluidly in with the potency of the guitars. In particular I LOVED the pomp of the intro to "Aryanismos", before the tremolo melodies streamed into the fray. Another very strong component to this music is the bass playing. He creates an almost progressive feel to the lines, loads of fast picking that creates a harried curvature which often diverges from just copying the guitar pattern. Athalwolf is no 'less is more' black metaller, he's quite competent on each instrument and delivers a lot more than the bare minimum the genre often manifests.

I don't have a lot of gripes, as Project Ordensburg keeps the listener engaged for the most part. Certain tracks like the brooding "Durch Nacht Zum Licht" provide a nice counterbalance to the peppier melodic assertions, and very few were not worth hearing. I do feel that the vocals, while cool, were mixed a fraction loudly on the album. They're distinct enough that they would have still functioned against a more powerful balance of guitars and synths. The writing is a little less coherent than a Heidentum, with a broader dynamic range that segregates, say, the lunar waltz of "Wehrwolfheid" from the fell, glorious chills of "Hordaland" or the power-black cavalry charge of the title track, but most of its was enjoyable, and the production consistent. Wolfnacht is without a doubt one of the more talented one man black metal forces in this particular political niche, whether one subscribes to his beliefs or not, and Project Ordensburg, while not his best writing to date, is a clear victor over that middling EP he released in 2010.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Aima Kai Timh EP (2010)

Wolfnacht's Aima Kai Timh is probably the most racially charged record of Athalwolf's career, and it's made even more prevalent due to the use of English lyrics, something he has only flirted with in the past but takes center stage upon this brief release. I was concerned at first that he'd be headed straight back into the RAC rock influence that was present on a few of his past works (Night of the Werewolf EP, Töten für W.O.T.A.N.) which I had never really cared for, but this is still straight up atmospheric black metal similar to his then latest and greatest album, Zeit der Cherusker. The one possible concession here is that the vocals he uses are primarily a sort of grimy median between cleans and his usual black rasp, so it feels a little unique (though he's messed with these vocals in the past).

Anyway, this is an artist whose quality has fluctuated between releases, generally hitting his heights when he's writing a more direct brand of black metal (Heidentum) or a more glorious, symphonic variation (Zeit der Cherusker or his Zofos side project). The two tracks here didn't seem to move me in either one direction or the other. There are still a lot of organ and synth lines, and he's improved his drumming here, which feels expressive and constantly shifting to collide with the tremolo picking and orchestration, but very few of the actual melodies present have that same, inspiring quality as the prior full-length. The ringing guitar intro to "The Night Before the N.S. Revolution" seems to imply an eeriness that is not capitalized on with the rest of the track, which is largely mid-paced and forgettable melodic black metal. The other track, "The Dawn of the N.S. Revolution" is more desperate and accelerated, and the vocals are a bit better, the blend of synths and guitars more flush, but ultimately I wasn't so impressed.

As I don't associate with Wolfnacht's ideology, the lyrics don't hold a lot of interest for me, but I can understand how the angry pro-Aryan crowd might appreciate that they're presented brazenly in English, a language that simply more people speak than German. What it really comes down to is the music, and Athalwolf has written better in the past, though it's good to see that he's remaining firmly in the black metal camp here. Aima Kai Timh is an extremely limited recording, with only a few hundred 7" in circulation, but those into his Zeit der Cheruskers or Dawn of Heathens albums might want to get their paws on it if they can find one. As a starting point though, I'd much more recommend one of the two full-lengths I praised in the second paragraph.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Zeit der Cherusker (2008)

The fourth full-length album from the most Germanic Greek guy to ever stalk the Ionian Islands is a welcome surprise. Athalwolf has almost entirely kicked the RAC rock bullshit to the curb here and gone for a more natural, bewitching amalgamation of melodies and symphonic elements, not quite similar to his side-project Zofos but potentially influenced by the great work he did on that album. The sheer, raw clatter of Zeit der Cherusker is in of itself impressive, but the compositions are also formidable and flexible in their execution. Lots of layers happening throughout each, and the instruments are each improved from prior outings; even the bass, which is largely subdued, but when audible has a nice, pumping groove to it that nicely contrasts the fibrous, fuzzy guitar tone.

Wouldn't be a Wolfnacht album without a compelling intro, and Athalwolf this time merges the wartime sampling of "Krig (Berzerkerwut)" with a thundering black metal charge, eerie choir synths resounding in the backdrop while the melodies ascend straight into the tortured span of the vocals, which stretch across the melodies like a starved bird of carrion calling out to its like minded raptors in search of a lead. The lyrics remain in German, and Athalwolf uses a lot of cleaner sub-rasps which bite off against the middle paced streaming tremolo guitars of, say, "Das Lied Des Wuotanskultes" as a thing of brutal beauty. The choirs and other synths strewn about the desperate and primal mix are almost always placed at the perfect spot in the the respective track to promote glory and emotional impact, and though a lot of the guitar melodies move at a similar pace and seem molded out of the same stock, I can't think of a song here that isn't at least enjoyable.

Even the ambient/instrumental segues of the album are wonderful. In particular, "Battles in the Teutoburger Forest (Victory of the Germanic Tribes") is the very heart of the album, with walls of chords slowly ground upon a massive, panoramic battlefield while the acid of horns rings out into the vortex of lost lives and charging hooves. Seriously, this piece is fucking sweltering and staggeringly excellent, and you've just got to hear it. The finale "Der Weg Nach Walhall" is also solid, with bold synthesizers and clean, effected guitars playing out like the leaving of some storm, the graying sky slowly mutated back to its initial blue, a strange pallor cast over the heaps of dead, staring into emptiness. Wolfnacht might go ignored by the politically correct black metal majority of the 21st century weaned on Dethklok and Wolves in the Throne Room, since he has never fit their status quo, but for those seeking to surround themselves in Germanic history, long on glory, Zeit der Cherusker is an unexpected success worth experiencing, and the very best of Athalwolf's albums to date (edging out Heidentum and Lore Unfolds).

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Dawn of Heathens (2007)

Based upon the strength of his side project Zofos, which also got out an album in 2007, I was hoping Athalwolf would create a turnaround for his mainstay Wolfnacht, which had sort of slacked off on its 2003 effort Töten für W.O.T.A.N. The problem with that album is the same as it is for many of these NSBM-oriented acts, that is they don't seem to want to choose between black metal and straight up RAC rock/punk, so instead of merging them together (plenty of punk black metal hybrids have done well), they just sort of split the tracks to provide a variety. So, where Heidentum was a strong and cohesive debut, its successor felt sort of scatterbrained in spots, even if it wasn't all that bad in the end.

Unfortunately, Dawn of Heathens makes the same mistake as its predecessor, in that it feels like two separate albums being jammed together. A few of the tracks here ("W.O.T.A.N. Returns" and "Totaler Krieg") are pure, meaty punk/rock tracks with thick, overpowering bass lines. The latter feels like a bruising, car cruising anthem while the former has a few traces of vitriol within, yet they come right at the center of the album and totally throw off the rest. After its' martial, sweltering intro ("Kampf-Krieg-Sieg"), there are a pair of tracks ("Wild Hunt" and "Black Bubonic Plague Part II") which return straight to the cold, vicious Scandinavian black metal tones of his debut full-length, complete with melodic, dire streaming guitars and tortured vocals that feel like a louder, more raunchy Varg Vikernes. "Wotansvolk Erwache" is a slower, more measured exercise in grim spite with a good amount of atmosphere to the drowning, drawling chords, and "Winterwald...Mein Reich" has a thicker guitar tone that nearly hides its melodic, meandering lead accompaniment.

The black metal here is honestly pretty good, probably on par with Heidentum, but yet I can't help feeling like the deviations at the album's core take me right out of its passionate, painful and spite-driven embrace. There's nothing necessarily bad about any of the tracks, and I'm yet again impressed by Athalwolf's ability to perform everything himself, but I almost feel like he'd have been better off separating this stuff into a pair of projects, rather than just the one. That said, there's a good cold production to the black metal tracks, and both the intro and the outro (the latter of which samples chanting over an escalation of backing black metal) are pretty sharp, and it's a stronger experience overall than Töten für W.O.T.A.N.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Töten für W.O.T.A.N. (2003)

Of the numerous Wolfnacht albums I've experienced, Töten für W.O.T.A.N. is the most unreservedly nationalistic, patriotic to the sweeping Nazism of the German 40s rather than Athalwolf's own Hellenic heritage. It's also perhaps the most diverse and comic of works, meshing together several pure RAC/punk tracks with the black metal content, and some pompous, traditional martial march themes. I'm sure the intention was not to be 'funny' here, but the mix of brute vocals over the rock tracks, and silly sounding hymnals with the rather mediocre metallic content caused me to chuckle aloud on several occasions. Needless to say, the humorous nature is confined to musical reaction alone, because the lyrics here are just as hostile and intolerant as one would expect. No, Töten für W.O.T.A.N. ('Will of the Aryan Nation') is not going to find itself on the shopping lists of the politically correct.

But there's an even more immediate reason the record should be ignored, by anyone: it's just not that good. Where Heidentum had this cold, cruel atmosphere to it redolent of the Norwegian black metal records of the early 90s, this is primarily a rock or punk album molded more to the styles of Skrewdriver or Bound for Glory. The only pure black metal track here is "Blizgott", while the remainder of the hard hitting material divides its time up between folk-punk blitzers like "Wir Sind Die Sturmkolonnen", melodic and anthemic rock like "Siehst Du Im Osten Das Morgenr", and knuckle dragging hardcore brutality like "Unsere Ehre Heist Treue" or "Krieg Uber Alles", the latter of which crosses a few of the genre streams with a more metallic bridge segment. About the only entertaining element of the slower material is the brute vocals being applied to the simple, Ramones-like riffs, which is nigh on hilarious; the guitars themselves are crude, uninteresting and leave very much to be desired, even in the more tearing "Blizgott".

Production-wise, this sophomore does have some balls to it, with more clarity and forcefulness than other acts I've heard in its niche. The music is forgettable, but not incompetent. The clean vocals are corny as all hell, and the lyrics are divided up between English and German, with the English tunes being the more overtly angry and antagonistic toward's Wolfnacht's chosen enemies, which include pretty much everyone outside the banner of white pride. Personally, I give two shits about the political aspirations or statements made on records of any faith or creed, only that Töten für W.O.T.A.N. fails to live up to the inherent musical promise of its predecessor, which was a respectable and raw black metal album with strong if derivative songwriting. Here, Athalwolf seems far more interested in the message than the music, and since that message is very unlikely to appeal to all but a fringe crowd, there's not much for it to stand on. Athalwolf can do better than this, and in fact, he will.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Heidentum (2002)

Heidentum takes itself more seriously than Wolfnacht's Night of the Werewolf EP, both in it's colder aural aesthetics and the ideological decision to write ALL lyrics and song titles in German, rather than just some of them. This was not a new strategy for Athalwolf, who had been doing the same on demos for several years prior, but here it works in conjunction with the compositions to invoke what might be the most chilling Greek NSBM record to its day. Other bands like Legion of Doom had been associated with the principles, but Heidentum asserts its convictions like a breath of winter, a crude production standard which functions remarkably well with the cutting rasp of the vocals and the streaming, bloodied guitars which feel like the steaming of lifeblood from the wounds of wolf prey under the frozen eaves of some forsaken forest...

Comparisons to early Burzum, Branikald, or Ulver are not impractical here, though Athalwolf uses a thick, almost death metal bark to his vocals which does often overwhelm the thinner riffing beneath. There are some phenomenal, grim fucking tracks on this one, such as "Licht des Sieges" where its raw guitars meet the subdued orchestral/synthesizer sweeps like a beautiful vortex of falling snow upon corpse-strewn wastes. Or "Heidentum" itself, which is the very essence of the loathing and sorrow that once characterized the 'second wave' black metal of Scandinavians. I was also rather fond of "Der Ritt durch das Land des Eis' und Nebels", from the trumpets and clamor of its intro sample to the cold floes of marching black belligerence. Only one tune here really hearkens back to the punk-metal displayed on Night of the Werewolf, and that would be the closer, a 9-minute experimental piece "Ein dämonischer Winter verhüllt den Schattenturm..." which cycles between raw rock riffs, black metal tremolo rhythms, and curious Gothic-wave sequences in which the melodies really pop out at the listener.

All in all, a fascinating enough album, even if all the songs are not driven home with the same level of writing quality. "Ein dämonischer..." proves that Athalwolf continues to covet his ability to diversify his palette of musical expression, and the primacy of the production values here is sure to thrill fans of that entire nihilistic necro sect of home and lo-fi recordings fundamental to the underbelly of the genre. Admittedly, this has everything in common with the underground of German and Scandinavia, and little to nothing of kinship to the fellow Greek bands, so as a rule of thumb it's not incredibly unique outside of the brief experimentation. But as far as transporting the listener to its frost-tinted worship of the past, it succeeds with some room to spare. Not a 'great' black metal album, perhaps, but a competent debut which remains as fresh as carrion on the scent, and one of the best of Wolfnacht.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://wolfnacht.com/

Wolfnacht - Night of the Werewolf EP (2002)

Greece has been associated with a number of nationalist black metal outfits, but of these, Wolfnacht was perhaps the first to exercise its ideology in such an overt fashion. Already a seasoned underground act with five demos from 1998-2001, their Night of the Werewolf EP was their first chance at slightly wider exposure, featuring a handful of both original songs and cover tributes to fellow European NS and pagan metal acts. This is also another one-man show, sole member Athalwolf handling all instruments and vocals from whatever crypt or sub-cellar he devoted to his machinations. And while he's not so much a musical prodigy, he's competent across most devices, skill suited enough to the rather rock and punk inspired black metal redolent of Germans Absurd.

Night of the Werewolf is honestly a fairly diverse offering, despite its crude studio aesthetics. Within 10 minutes we've gone from "Todrunen", a grim and eerie ambient intro with chants and dark bell intonations; to "Night of the Werewolf" itself, a mid-paced rock/punk piece with the decrepit vocals we'd expect of the black metal genre; and then to "Black Bubonic Plague", a harsh stream of fast, melodic black metal with swaths of synthesizer applied for a grand atmosphere. The other originals are "Aufstand", with a muted hate rock riffing sequence accelerating into a punk explosion, clean vocals affixed to the primitive snarling, and "Wehrwolfsschantre", another traditional black metal tune which happens to be the most absorbing on the release, from its opening surge to the mixed rasps, Gothic drawl and synthesizers in the verse. The transitions here are a little 'loose', but the track honestly gives the impression that Athalwolf is pretty damn good at this once he leans towards the metallic side of his spectrum.

Then there are the three covers. He does a pretty rough job of "Wotans Krieger" by Germans Halgadom, a decent melodic pagan/black song in of itself, but the vocal mix is terrible, standing well out to the side of the underlying musical current. I had mentioned a comparison to Absurd earlier, and it's no surprise that he also takes on one of theirs, "Eternal Winter" from their old videotape of the same name. Definitely has a bit more of the punk edge, but I like the drums, even if the vocals still sound isolated from the rest of the mix. The last is not so much a cover as a blatant lifting of the Waffen SS "Pa Vikingtog" march, which is included as an outro, no doubt to whip up both patriotic scene points within the NSBM realm, and a little shock and loathing from detractors of bands under this banner. In truth, I actually found the original material here to be stronger than the covers. Overall it's not bad, but I did feel that his pure black metal writing was superior to the more rock-fueled venom.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (he will return this night)

http://wolfnacht.com/