Wolves In Winter – The Calling Quiet
Release Date: 24th February 2023
Label: ARGONAUTA Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom Metal, Sludge Metal.
FFO: UK Doom, Black Sabbath, Monolith Cult, Boss Keloid.
Review By: Mark Young
Forming in 2020, Wolves In Winter have taken the doom blueprint and have managed to put their own stamp on it. Featuring members past and present of other doom proponents, this debut offering, The Calling Quiet, just rolls out of the speakers and is almost fully formed and ready to go.
Each of the songs are lengthy without feeling as though they are dragging or rehashing the same motif for too long and although it feels that all roads lead back to Black Sabbath (eventually) they have managed to make this heavy but with catchy riffs that engage. It’s not heavy just for being heavy, it has surprisingly light moments that showcase a mature level of writing and arrangement that suggests that there is a lot more to come from them.
One thing that I really loved on here was that dynamic between light and dark, when they unleash a riff passage it’s perfectly suited to what has gone before and everything is perfectly weighted in the context of that song. The softer melodic parts are on point and the vocals are delivered with just the right amount of bite.
There is a lot going on and having these threads within each moment is ok, but they manage to resolve each one successfully. There are a lot of influences in here, and I don’t know enough about doom bands in general, so I call them as hear them and the main one is Alice in Chains and maybe Paradise Lost in terms of audible influence, but the best is that they know what they want.
It doesn’t meander, it’s direct and more importantly is accessible and will certainly benefit from repeated listens as you catch more on each play. It is a strong release that I would like to see live and will look out for more from them in the future.
1. Cord That Ends The Pain
2. Nemesis
3. Pastime For Helots
4. Promised Harvest
5. Oceans
6. Calling The Quiet
(4 / 5)
