A Howling from a Thousand Years

Holy shit, so this band IS capable of making decent music after all! Judging from the “Gèvaudan” demo and Thallium’s contribution to the split with Evil and S.A.R., I never thought I’d be able to enjoy anything masterminded by Warwolf. Although “A Howling From a Thousand Years” is a bit rough around the edges, it’s very listenable indeed and proves that you should never judge a band before you’ve heard all their releases.

This full-length features surprisingly good melancholic and sorrowful NSBM, which makes me think of a doomy version of early Graveland (circa “In the Glare of Burning Churches”/”Carpathian Wolves”). The riffs are clearly influenced by old Graveland and the almost constantly present synths give the music a floating feel. Warwolf’s vocals sound like a mixture of Rob Darken and Baron von Abaddon (Black Funeral). The drumming is a lot better here (still very simple and primitive though) than it was on “Gèvaudan” and the split CD and that makes all the difference. Even if the drumming is a bit clumsy overall, the drummer at least manages to hold the songs together. The music never becomes as messy due to lack of tightness as it does on the other releases I mentioned.

Tracks like “Murdered by the Time” and “Sorrowful Senility” are fine raw funeral dirges that will make your smile turn into a frown while sorrow fills your mind. These tracks make good use of the combination of depressive Graveland inspired riffs and sombre synths. “La Bete de Gevandan” mixes blast beats with long slow and depressive parts. “Werewolf Stormtroop” is more upbeat and not really depressive. It sounds a lot like old Graveland and is for sure one of my favourites, good hateful black metal.

The last two tracks are obviously from a different recording session than the first five (they have a significantly different sound). This destroys the flow of the album to some extent, especially since I like the sound of the first part of the album a lot. “Ancient Glory” is maybe the worst track on the album, since the guitar riffs here are pretty uninteresting even if they sound like old Graveland stuff. Of the drums on this track only the snare can be heard well, for some reason the bass drum is practically inaudible. Thankfully this is also the shortest track, so not much is lost. Overall “Howling From a Thousand Years” was a very positive surprise from a band that I didn’t expect anything good from.