Wolfshead – Caput Lupinum (2015) / 85%

Tête de loup

Fall of the Idols are definitely one of the most underrated doom bands in the world and they've been on a sort of hiatus since their last album released in 2012 and after the death of one of their members. They promised to release one last album though and I'm sure it will be quite good. In the meantime, we're served with the first extended play (after two demos) of a newer project with one of the founding members of FotI, the bassist Vesa Karppinen. One of the two composers of the album alongside Torture Pulse's (death metal) frontman Ari Rajaniemi (guitars), Vesa penned the title track of the album alone (Caput Lupinum means wolf's head, I felt like a noob when I used Google to translate that) but the three other songs were collaborative efforts.

Wolfshead, unlike Fall of the Idols, is bombastic and harsh heavy/doom and it doesn't take (or lose) its time with longer songs and while the closer “A Shadow in the Rain (London 1888)” is almost seven minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome at all and remains a concise affair. They remind me of Serpent Warning's (they played with them in their native country, so far away from me unfortunately!) groovier and shorter tracks (their debut album released last year is excellent) or Grand Magus's pulverising riffs. The four tracks release has plenty of riffs and you can definitely feel the influences of fast paced doomsters Pentagram or the bluesy might of Motorhead in there. The vocals of Tero Laine are sung cleanly but they possess this harsh quality not dissimilar from a Lemmy turned doom. Tracks like “Leave Me Burnin'” are tons of funs with a sort of NWOBHM feel and proves that the band can write compelling and varied songs without losing their focus. I feel they have everything that's necessary to release a strong full length album. All their riffs are good, their production is solid and rock hard, their theme and aesthetic are well developed and their vocals are distinctive and original.

With Caput Lupinum, the quartet wrote a pretty impressive EP with strong emotional, catchy and heavy songs and they show all their different sides with it. Also, be sure to check out the other band of Wolfshead's guitarist, the excellent and more adventurous Deep River Acolytes, they're also worthy of your time and money. Oh and it's really hard to draw realistic boobs, the artist unfortunatlely failed the task!

Bandcamp