What the hell did I just listen to? I understand metalcore is an easy target for ridicule and I’m not trying to establish some instant cred here by bashing it just because it sucks. Most of it is unoriginal, bands tend to ape At the Gates, Slayer and/or melodic Swedish death metal etc. I wouldn’t be telling anyone here something that wasn’t obvious to a five-year-old. Wolves, though, sounds like a fucking parody of metalcore. It takes clichés common enough to metal - girl singer, “atmospheric” keyboard parts, picking’n'mixing of genres for that positive mouthfeel - and assembles them in a haphazard manner, adding in some “what the fuck” moments on the way out. It’s like Hacksaw Jim Duggan hit me with a two-by-four of what’s supposed to be “hot” and “trendy” in metal at the moment. HOOOOO! USA! USA!

The music on Wolves is actually somewhat credible no-frills death metal in spots while conforming to melodic death metal standard in others. If Deadlock could just work on that I’d be fine with the band, but in comes 13-year-old-sounding female lead singer Sabine Weniger and the finest dance anthems the mid-1990s have to offer and all bets are off. "To Where the Skies Are Blue" sounds like an Avril Lavigne song. "End Begins" starts with synth and then exists in a morass of metalcore song sequences until it starts to turn into a rave anthem two and a half minutes in, then it’s back to the guitars. All that was missing from that one keyboard sequence was some E and glow sticks. If I want electronic music I’ll listen to Autechre, Kraftwerk or abrasive noise. If I want a band that can genre-hop properly I’ll put on Time of Orchids or Estradasphere. See where I’m going with this?

Wolves feels disjointed from note one and it shows. The whole album seems to have this “‘galloping’ part here, death metal part here, insert female vocals in this part, here’s some keys” assembly to it. Deadlock feel pieced together from disparate sources, none of which blend into one another. It’s like Deadlock were built on contingency and have decided to appeal to more than one audience to maximize potential revenue instead of going with a chosen sound and running with it. Fans of this kind of music can go ahead and proclaim this “an epic” and “the best album of 2007″ all they want. I’ll go look for something more substantial, like a hammer.

Written By: The Ultimate Mark