Power of Metal.dk Review

 
Wolfpakk
Rise of the Animal
Rating
 
Style: (Power) metal
Release date: 27 February, 2015
Playing time: 58:00
 


Any idea what the first thing was what I thought looking at the new artwork from Wolfpakk? White Lion, their 'Pride' album. Why? Well, just find it on the internet and you know. That is the only comparison with this band, because their music differs a lot. This German band is a cooperation between Mark Sweeney and Michael Voss and this is already their third release within 4 years. Both musicians are good song writers and the style of the music is traditional heavy metal with power metal influences, but also some typical hardrock elements. There is enough variation and that is also the result of the many different guest singers on the album.

Most of the singing is done by Mark Sweeney and Michael Voss, but always with a third voice as a guest singer (with the exception of "High Roller"). There is a lot of variation between the songs and they have searched for the singer that sticks to the style. Take for example the track "Rise of the Animal" with Michael Kiske, which is a pure power metal song and compare that with "Monkey On Your Back" with Ted Poley (Danger Danger) or with "Highlands" with Joe Lynn Turner. If you would hear them seperately, you wouldn't have guessed they are from the same album. One of my favorite songs is "Highlands", with Scottish melodies and bagpipes, the other one is the title track, which sounds like a track from an Avantasia album. What a unique voice does Kiske have, he sings on this song as a young God.

Besides the guest singers, there are artists like Bob Daisley, Al Barrow, Barend Courbois, Jeff Watson, Ryan Roxie, Bernie Torme, John Norum, Doug Aldrich, Axel Rudi Pell, Martin Rauber, Mike Terrana, Mark Schulman, Simon Philips, Chris Slade, Gereon Homann and more who can be heard on this album. An all star album with quite some variation in the songs, which makes it for me interesting enough to recommend this to you all.


Tracklist
01. Rider Of the Storm (with Andi Deris)
02.
Spock It to Me (with Marc Storace)
03.
Monkey On Your Back (with Ted Poley)
04.
Highlands (with Joe Lynn Turner)
05.
Black Wolf ( with Rick Altzi)
06.
Somewhere Beyond (with David Reece)
07.
Running Out Of Time (with Don Dokken)
08.
Grizzly Man (with Charlie Huhn)
09.
High Roller
10. Rise Of the Animal (with Michael Kiske)

11. Universe (with Michaela Schober)
Label: AFM Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 27 February, 2015
Website: www.wolfpakk.net