Trying to punch somewhat above their weight
Artiste: Wolfsbane
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Wolfsbane save the world
Year: 2012
Label: Self-released
Genre: Heavy metal
Tracks:
Blue sky
Teacher
Buy my pain
Starlight
Smoke and red light
Illusion of love
Live before I die
Who are you now?
Everybody's looking for something
Child of the sun
Did it for the money!
Chronological position: Fourth album
Familiarity: None
Interesting factoid: Singer Blaze Bayley is probably best known for his (some would say infamous) stint with Iron Maiden in the nineties
Initial impression: Good, honest, no-frills metal
Best track(s): Teacher, Illusion of love, Smoke and red light, Starlight, Child of the sun
Worst track(s): Who are you now?
Comments: I've a bit of a dilemma here. I hated Blaze Bayley for what I see as his almost destruction of Iron Maiden with the two albums "The X factor" and "Virtual XI", yet I love the title of this album. It's just so kitsch, and I have to give Wolfsbane a chance. As it turns out, it's not bad, considering their last outing together was 1994, shortly after which Bayley joined Maiden and his band split up, before reforming when he returned to the fold in 2010.
There are a lot of fun tracks, like
Teacher,
Everybody's looking for something and the closer
Did it for the money! (which is certainly refreshingly honest, if a little tongue-in-cheek), with its semi-rap/Run DMC-style vibe, but is there enough serious fare in between to make this album worth listening to? I was never a fan of the vocal style of Blaze, and even here I think he sounds maybe a little forced, but as I say I'm biased. Everything kicks up about four gears for
Buy my pain, almost thrash metal in parts (which I personally feel doesn't work) although there is a little bit of what I'm coming to see as Wolfsbane humour, when the lyric mentions crucify and Blaze imitates the centurion in Monty Python's "Life of Brian" as he quips "Crucifixion?"
In contrast,
Starlight is a half-ballad, quite commercial and airwave-worthy, while
Smoke and red light gets things rockin' again, one of the better tracks to be honest, with a great hook and catchy chorus. There's a lot of eighties Whitesnake in
The illusion of love, with some great guitar work from Jase "The Ace" Edwards, and fine powerful percussion from the brilliantly-named Steve Danger. It even fires off into a sort of southern rock ending, with splashes of Queen multi-vocals. Cool.
Look, despite the (obviously humourous) title, Wolfsbane ain't about to save rock and roll, metal, or indeed the world with this album, but it's not half bad. I wouldn't be rushing out to buy it for Christmas, but it might be a pleasing little stocking filler. If nothing else, it does prove at last that there is life beyond Iron Maiden for Blaze Bayley.
Overall impression: Nothing much bad to say about this. Pretty entertaining, though I can think of a dozen other albums I'd listen to before I'd spin this again.
Intention: Meh. Nothing really.