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Review: Lonewolf - Cult of Steel
Lonewolf
www.wolfdivision.com
Cult of Steel

Label: Massacre Records
Year released: 2014
Duration: 57:17
Tracks: 12
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Rating:
4.25/5


Review online: February 4, 2015
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.91/5 (78.18%) (11 Votes)
Review

France's Lonewolf flashed some promise early in their career but have been treading water with recent releases like Army of the Damned and The Fourth and Final Horseman. 2014's Cult of Steel finally cashes the check Lonewolf wrote so long ago.

This is not new stuff, not by a long shot, but the songwriting is leaps and bounds better than anything the band has done in the last five years. They embrace speed right from the get-go (after a brief acoustic intro) on "The Cult of Steel" and carry it straight through a couple of bonus tracks at the end. The vocals remain a gritty bellow not unlike Chris Boltendahl or Glen Metal and the English is delightfully shaky like the chorus on "Hordes of the Night" where it sounds more like "Whores of the Night" (a quick search on Metal-Archives revealed no songs by that name so young bands looking for a unique title, there you go). Typical "Metal" topics are sung about with enthusiasm, if not originality, on songs like "Werewolf Revolution," "Hell's Legacy" and "Force to Fight." Not every track is a winner but you'll likely be singing to each and every chorus and the solos are expertly crafted to work with the overall melody of the song and aren't just a series of notes played really fast at the "insert solo here" part of the sheet music.

Finally, things have come together for a band that seems like it should have been better than it actually was. Cult of Steel brings me back to albums like Wizard's Head of the Deceiver and Cryonic Temple's Blood, Guts & Glory. Break out the air guitars and throw your damn fist in the air!

More about Lonewolf...
Review: Army of the Damned (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Division Hades (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Raised on Metal (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Fourth and Final Horseman (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Fourth and Final Horseman (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Heathen Dawn (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Unholy Paradise (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
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