Wanton Attack are a Swedish duo who personify the classic Swedish metal scene, a new force to be reckoned with indeed. The duo are Micael Zetterberg (vocals/drums) and Niklas Holm (guitars/bass). The album PR material cites early Mercyful Fate, this is very true musically, vocally…well no! But that’s not meaning in a bad way. There’s no falsetto! In some place there is a nasal tone similar to Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies (on ‘Fatal Technology’), that maybe just my mind though! Of course, the “King” is represented very well! The font and colouration of the bands logo reminds me of ‘Destinies of War’ by…Attack (’93 version).
These are powerful tunes that are expertly arranged and recorded with a nice sounding production. Obscure, of course it is, it is definitely not your run of the mill material, but there is a sense of being home when I personally listen to this. I am a long admirer of the Swedish sound and scene and this is a perfect jigsaw piece to add to the infinite puzzle.
Starting with ‘Demonic Forces Prevail’ you immediately get the similarities to those famous Dane’s, especially their 90’s material. Terrifically eerie, energetic and simply awesome. The flow is pretty good, it’s very good in fact. So we have a great start. As we hit the bands self-titled track, there is more staccato and base chord structure with some great overlaid riffs amongst the haunting vocal. I love the tempo changes. ‘The Best Will Be Tamed’, simply classic Scandinavian metal, the wrist action in the chords, the interludes and lead breaks, we’re galloping off to war for sure.
There are many highlights such as ‘His Masters Voice’ to the light opening rendition of ‘Crystal Ball’ to the synth driven ‘Arrogant Humanity’. I guess this is where the John Carpenter references come from in the PR material.
This is certainly going to be one of those albums that’s going to set people talking about. Don’t use cheap headphones or car stereos, you feel the warmth more on bigger systems. Wanton Attack, yes I feel we will hear more of these in the underground, there’s a new name to be proud of and for a debut, it’s very welcomed around these parts.
(8.5/10 Paul Maddison)
Leave a Reply