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Lonewolf – The Heathen Dawn

Published:

Last Updated on 10:01 PM by Nikos Nakos

Genre: Heavy Metal
Country: France
Label: Massacre Records
Year: 2016

To be honest, I originally learned about Lonewolf only because they sound a lot like Running Wild (they cite Running Wild as their main influence), and since I am a huge fan of Running Wild (a bit too obvious I’d say, I typed Running Wild 4 times in 1 sentence), I had to check them out. For some reason i was expecting them to be more like a tribute band, but I was very pleased to find out that they’re not. They’re actually a very active band with 8 full length albums released since 2001. Their latest release is “The Heathen Dawn” and is the one we’re going to talk about today.

The intro of the album “A Call to Wolves” is as epic as I need an intro to be to get me pumped for some headbanging, could easily be the theme song of an old fashioned epic movie. What’s ahead of you, won’t take many words to describe. Classic, aggressive and fast paced Heavy Metal, epic battles, mighty warriors, drums that make the task of keeping your leg still seem impossible and melodic solos (that also sound Iron Maiden-ish at times). The only downside in my opinion are the vocals, they’re not bad, but it seems that Jens Borner has some trouble hitting the higher notes, and his range is limited. I personally ended up loving the vocals more than I originally anticipated, but to each their own. The production is good and modern, and the artwork on the cover is neat and epic, a wolf-like angry creature and his army of skeletons accompanying him on a boat, sailing in the heavy seas. As Ipreviously mentioned, Lonewolf are heavily influenced by Running Wild, but don’t expect them to sound identical (there’s no point in that anyway), they are more power-ish, plus no pirates around. The closing of “The Heathen Dawn” with the track “Song for the Fallen” could easily be the highlight of this album, great melodies that won’t go unnoticed, epic and powerfull, leaves you wanting to re-play the album.

Overall, Lonewolf is a very consistent band that keeps improving throughout the years, and “The Heathen Dawn” is an album definitely worth giving a listen to. There’s nothing really unique about this album (or Lonewolf in general), not much variety either,they don’t bring anything new to the table, it is what it is, a good album that won’t bore you and will probably make you want to raise your fist in the air plenty of times.

4.5/6

Sofie Vakidou
Sofie Vakidou
Shield all your fears, release all your fury

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