Wolftooth - Wolftooth

The groove is strong with this one. Wolftooth’s eponymous album is a cyclonic forty two minutes of righteous and crucial heavy metal. This debut bursts above the playing field with a firm and exciting reminder that it’s never uncool to make a solid rock effort. 

I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to early albums by The Sword, which isn’t entirely inaccurate, however I believe that Wolftooth’s sound is a lot more polished and the melody is highly emphasized. The similarity is especially noticeable for the album’s fundamentally classic metal tracks which hinge on a crunchy blues rock sound, such as on “Sword of My Father” and “The Huntress”. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Sullivan has a phenomenally resonant and clear singing style that enriches every tune. In ways that few other contemporaries can, Wolftooth captures that soulful vibe of old school 70s rock and enhances their caliber a ton with a dynamic range of skilled musicians.

The group wonderfully execute smooth transitions between a raging tempest of riffs and enthralling bluesy hooks. You’ll get more than your fix of headbanging, foot stomping, and hip shaking too, if that’s your thing. Mythical themes and allegory are widely present throughout the album, also e.g. “White Mountain”. “Frost Lord” raises the bar on how closely stoner metal can converge on the heaviness of a pummeling thrash metal riff with its exciting conclusion. There are so many grooves layered throughout this album that flow judiciously together. The band is as tight as one band should ever hope to be on their debut, and I'm really excited to see where this band from Richmond, Indiana goes next.

Wolftooth was released on January 19th, 2018.