My first association with Wolverine was an impressive and mood-filled track called “New Best Friends” on the album”Cold Light of Monday”. They’ve not been a particularly prolific band with five albums in a fifteen year period, but their music has always had such special qualities that they cannot be ignored. “Communications Lost” (2011) is one of my all-time absolute favourite albums. The patterns and impact are simply immense.
All those qualities, which have endeared me so much to Wolverine when I’ve listened to their albums and seen them live, are evident from the opening fourteen minute track “The Bedlam Overture”. At the core is a classic progressive rock-metal band, but there’s always something mystical about their work. Soft melancholy runs through every piece but passages develop fluidly and blend into each other. It’s a kaleidoscope of instrumental beauty. A unique feature of Wolverine is the vocal style. Everything is accentuated, so it’s all clear and as if lead vocalist Stefan Zell is speaking to us personally. With the precise but never exaggerated range of instrumentals, “The Bedlam Overture”, as so many tracks have on albums before it, gently transport us into another world where we stay and imbibe the beauty and sadness. “Machina” takes a slightly different, even more dream-like twist. “Wide awake, I am endlessly drifting, weightless … heavily”, it starts as softly turning instrumental patterns develop. Like much of Wolverine’s work, it’s about being trapped, being unable to escape, alienation and losing communication. They draw us into this world but express it powerfully. Gloom is at the epicentre of everything and sometimes it’s exploited to the extreme. “Pile of Ash” is such a case – acoustically backed, Mr Zell pours out his soul. If I have one thing to dislike about Wolverine, it’s that I find tracks like this a bit leaden, but I cannot deny “Pile of Ash” is in keeping with the overall mood. There’s also a cello version of this same track included as a bonus at the end.
Following “Pile of Ash” is “Our Last Goodbye”, a typical Wolverinian theme if ever there was one. Reflective tragedy runs through the song, but the soft patterings and guitar work provide colour. A feature which Wolverine adopt on this album is the use of the French horn. It is entirely appropriate to the mood of tragedy. And it’s the mood, which is so dominant, whether it’s the soft silkiness of “Our Last Goodbye” or the sharpness of rhythm which characterises “Pledge”. “In the darkness of tonight, dancing shadows on the wall, hiding from the light, into the night, darkness to light” captures the mood, to which is added human tragedy and alienation. It’s all reflected in the dreaminess and power of the instrumentals, which create a strong force. Progressive music sometimes overemphasises technicality over humanity but never here. Wolverine strike chords in both a human and musical sense. “Trading secrets with your loneliness” is the stand-out line of “When the Night Comes”, another ultra gloomy soundscape in which the feelings of coldness, self-doubt and uncertainty are expressed through softer tones. “Nemesis” has more of the feel of a traditional progressive track, with keyboards and expressive guitars branching out above the dark rhythm. I liked the structure of “Nemesis” very much. The album finishes with the progressive hymn “Sheds”. Given the nature of the previous seven tracks, it would be inappropriate to have anything upbeat. “Sheds” not only does justice to what has gone before, but shrouds us in gloomy and atmospheric mists, leaving a lingering haunting air.
Compared to “Communications Lost”, I thought that “Machina Liva” was in general more funereal and lacking its predecessor’s epic and distinctly memorable moments. But once again Wolverine have released an album of sensitivity and musical magic, full of expressive gloomy atmospheres which has been their hallmark in both their recorded and live output.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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