WOLFBRIGADE

Veterans of a Swedish hardcore punk scene that always seems cooler and filthier than the rest, WOLFBRIGADE have always known exactly what they are doing. Over the course of nearly three decades, they have certainly become a less overtly underground concern, and the sonic quality of their face-ripping assaults has been enhanced several times, but the essence of what they do remains the same. This is foul, violent and unrelenting D-beat hardcore with a crusty underbelly, a MOTÖRHEAD fixation and a gift for misanthropic hostility that few can rival. "Life Knife Death" is the eighth album to bear the WOLFBRIGADE banner (although there were three previous albums released as WOLFPACK) and while it is definitely not a carbon copy of any of its predecessors, it does adhere strictly and passionately to the same ethos of scuzz-guzzling speed punk insanity that inspired the Swedes back in the mid '90s: This is fast, furious, dirty and slightly unhinged.

Expecting the subtle approach? Think again. Obviously. "Ways To Die" lists the various ways you might like to meet your demise, starts at a venomous full pelt, and continues with unrelenting intensity for roughly two minutes. This is the WOLFBRIGADE way, and it fucking rips. Thereafter, all monochromatic shades of the hardcore punk rainbow are used to devastating effect. "Disarm or be Destroyed" is a D-beating, speed metal sledgehammer to the skull, with frontman Micke Dahl spewing threats over a deceptively melodic blizzard of riffs and classic metal mutations. The title track pumps rock 'n' roll full of vitriol and broken teeth, and ends up with a scything, hardcore attack that easily ranks as one of the heaviest WOLFBRIGADE tracks ever. Like its title, it leaves no room for doubt or compromise, but an occasional guitar solo certainly doesn't hurt. Back at top speed, the brilliantly titled "A Day in the Life of an Arse" confirms that this band have lost none of their intensity over the years; while "Unruled and Unnamed" allows some traces of old-school death metal to infiltrate the stripped-down punk brutalism and Lemmy-like bellowing, thus making the whole thing even more crushing.

This is a sustained, 32-minute adrenalin rush with a foul attitude and a decent amount of heavy weaponry. Short, shocking bolts of hate like "Your God Is a Corpse" and "Nail Bomb" crackle with an energy that many much younger bands would struggle to emulate, and if diehard fans of this stuff are not downing beers and setting fire to the furniture by the end of grim and unsettling outro "Age of Skull Fuckery", something has gone terribly wrong. "Life Knife Death" is like being nailed to the front of a runaway freight train, but louder.