Unholy Paradise

This is the second full-length album from France's true-metal stalwarts Lonewolf, who sound like a Greek band but aren't. They just put out a single called "Hellenic Warriors" on Eat Metal Records, and it rules even harder than this does, so I see great things in store for this band.

The first time I was spinning this I was thinking "Hmmmmm, what does this remind me of?" and then I looked at the band pics and lo, there's a Running Wild shirt, and I was like "Oh yeah, that was it." So yes, Lonewolf sound a lot like Running Wild, with a fat guitar tone and vocals in that fine 'Rock&Rolf' style. And no, they aren't as good as Running Wild are at their best, but they are better than RW filler any day. Check out the flying crunch of "1789", "Behind The Cross" or "Medieval Witchcraft" – killer shit. Lonewolf have no gimmick, they just play fast and heavy and pack in good riffs.

Lonewolf may not be great, but they are very good, and if the new song is anything to judge by, there might just be greatness in their future. Fans of old-fashioned metal like Running Wild, Paragon and Ironsword will want to watch this band.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

French speed metallers Lonewolf have risen from nowhere playing a fast variant of traditional metal focused on heavy and fast guitar riffs intertwined with gruff but not harsh vocals found in typical heavy metal bands scattered around in the 80’s. Their music is fairly simple from what I gather they don’t stray out of the boundaries of normal heavy metal music with speed metal overtones that allow them to be swept away with the multitude of bands playing similar music.

None of the band members seem to be extraordinarily talented in their own department, the guitarists often show some talent with some flashy solos here and there but it seems they stick to semi-melodic leads and repetitive riffs. Fortunately for the listener, the faster songs are the most entertaining and Unholy Paradise doesn’t offer many slow songs, but you can safely hit the skip button over those, SPQR seems to be the only ‘ballad-esque’ one. But the 2 other mid-tempo songs are rather boring. Faster numbers like the opener, Behind the Cross, and Wild and Free are all enjoyable but it seems that the riffs are all the same with no variety and it’s not like the vocals add anything new here but if they had more…something…to it, the songs would be more memorable; otherwise it almost sounds like the same song rehashed with a barely different structure and different solo. Lonewolf can be melodic if they want to but alas they do not seem to harness this power in every song and thus making it seem inconsistent. The best song, Snake in Eden is an awesome song featuring some heavy riffs and a killer solo whilst still being melodic and catchy. If only all the songs could be as fun as this one the album would be more compelling.

Unholy Paradise could have been a really decent album but it falls short due to inconsistency and a somewhat amateurish lack of direction. There is almost no variety in the instrument-wise and it seems that they just want to play it safe. More oomph to the music or adding in variety and diversity could spice up their work and make the music more fun, otherwise this is generic and will continue to be passed by over other bands.