POWERWOLF

Inimitable and unstoppable, POWERWOLF have become one of the world's biggest metal bands over the last decade. A distinctly gothic alternative to the brash pomp of the power metal mainstream, the Germans have nurtured their self-created niche with great skill. Each successive album has added fuel to their still ongoing rise to glory, and much like their only obvious peers in SABATON, POWERWOLF have mastered the art of making everything they do seem like a big deal.

Their tenth studio album (if you include last year's "Interludium" stopgap splurge),"Wake Up The Wicked"  is destined to be a colossal success, but it is a great credit to the band that this feels as urgent and as committed to the upward ascent as anything they have released to date. It is an album full of instantly memorable heavy metal anthems, all ornately dressed in the quasi-religious trappings and orchestral extravagance that have become such important trademarks. In that sense, at least, POWERWOLF are not providing their fans with anything particularly new here, but like 2021's "Call of the Wild", "Wake Up The Wicked" is a bravura display of confidence.

POWERWOLF remain hell-bent on being the best possible version of themselves. Having risen to prominence by sticking rigidly to a formula of succinct, melody-heavy rabble-rousers, they simply continue to refine and redefine their sound. "Wake Up The Wicked" is entirely free of songwriting flab, and pointless, scene-setting atmospherics are kept to a minimum, ensuring that every song impacts like an elbow to the eye-socket. The opening "Bless 'Em With The Blade" is just about perfect: a sub-three-minute sing-along that powers along at a breathless pace, it showcases a vast and shiny production job that elevates every moment here.

"Sinners of the Seven Seas" is even better, thanks in part to a chorus that will soon be sung from Salzburg to Santiago, but also because POWERWOLF have become laudably adept at being joyous and uplifting, while also maintaining that deadpan, haunted-chapel façade. The Germans' gift for putting bizarre innuendoes center stage continues on "Kyrie Klitorem", a melodramatic rager with a blinding, AOR sheen. "Heretic Hunters" wanders momentarily into folk metal territory, but soon erupts into more triumphant bombast, led by an increasingly imperious Attila Dorn. The singer's extraordinary voice and immense charisma have been a fundamental part of POWERWOLF's success, and he has never sounded stronger or more commanding than he does here. On recent single "1589" he dons the narrator's cloak, negotiating the song's ebb-and-flow dynamics with a great actor's panache; on the brilliantly titled "Thunderpriest", he transforms into the infernal cleric of its title, armed with yet more great melodies and a chorus that crackles with old-school delight.

Meanwhile, POWERWOLF have supported their greatest asset with an absurdly consistent set of songs. Whether it's the orchestrally enhanced, leering ghost dance of "Viva Vulgata" or the addictive, power metal perfection of "We Don't Wanna Be No Saints" and the delirious "Joan of Arc", "Wake Up The Wicked" is proof that reaching the top need not necessarily signify the death of ambition. Bigger, better and more direct than ever before, this is POWERWOLF at the top of their game.