Label: Folter Records
Date: January 24th, 2024
These guys went all guns blazing onto the scene, just three years ago, with their debut album “Ferocious Blasphemic Warfare”. It was a fresh can of gasoline to the somewhat stagnant black metal stage of Finland. Not that Finns were ever behind on an international scale, but just when you think they’ve gone dormant, a band such as Wolves Of Perdition comes along and shakes things up a bit. Even more than a bit, considering the album titles. However, those are the only aspects of this act that are not all together suitable. Let me explain.
As on “Ferocious Blasphemic Warfare”, so on “Ultraviolence”, you don’t quite get what is advertised. When I think of titles like those, my mind slips to Marduk’s “Panzer Division Marduk”, Infernal War’s “Terrorfront” or, staying in Finland, Impaled Nazarene’s “Ugra-Karma”. Those are the purest acts of violence in black metal I can recall at any given time. Wolves Of Perdition is, of course, far from delicate flowers, rainbows and unicorns, but their take on the dark musical arts is much better thought through and elaborate than those mentioned above.
Naturally, this duo expels more than enough raging violence. Without it, you’re stepping outside of the final black metal boundary. Still, their modus operandi, as displayed on the debut, three years ago, combines the factors that make the genre stand out in a couple of differing directions. From old black metal, cold and atmospheric or wrathfully energetic, to melodic iterations of the sound and even hinting at melodic death metal. Cherry on top being a relatively melancholic guitar solo in “The Worst of Us”.
Wolves Of Perdition do borrow extensively from Scandinavian black metal tradition. Swedish most gladly, but this time they harvest from their own backyard a bit more. That might be the only apparent motion away from the path they’ve chosen on the debut album. That being said, it doesn’t influence the overall impact of “Ultraviolence”. The only things that bother me are the unfitting title and the unnecessary and incomprehensible introduction “Must Kill Them All”.
Other than those, the album strikes hard and straight at the target. It is not original, but it is far from derivative. The songs are nicely crafted, as if there’s extensive experience behind the duo, when there’s probably just a profound understanding of the genre. Wolves Of Perdition use the tools invented long ago, but the results of their work far exceed what their more prolific colleagues are coming up with these days.
“Ultraviolence” is a highly commendable piece of black art, by a band that should already be going places. Just don’t trust the title. Or the cover artwork that makes me think of Belphegor. Then again, the closing track “Tuomio” bears some resemblance to the Austrians as well. Hell, there’s everything here and it all adds up into a strong release that needs to pass through the black metal ears the world over.
