Hailing from London, Dead Wolf Club are seemingly getting around at the moment (their forthcoming tour hits nearly everywhere – hell, they’re even playing the Isle Of Man). Their name conjures up thoughts of aggression, as I can only presume the club’s members consist of people who have killed, or associated with, wolves. The alternative is that they’re a club of dead wolves, but I would imagine if this were true the band would be a lot quieter. Their sound is thick and muddy, a bit like My Bloody Valentine, or Sonic Youth.
This album is the equivalent of the ruthless policeman you always see in American TV; you want to settle down, hear what they have to say, but rather than letting you settle in they just rattle you about before you’re even in the chair. ‘Headful Of Horrors’ is, other than incredibly catchy, a bloody testament to fuzz pedals, with more snarling than my local housing estate on a Saturday afternoon, and wonderful distorted vocals. ‘Radar’ on the other hand is a bit more tame sound wise, especially when the ultra clean bridge comes in before the brilliantly catchy chorus kicks in.
‘News At 10’ is so full of distorted harmonics and My Bloody Valentine levels of depth to the soundscape, with the memorable chorus (“Everybody wants to rule the world, but no one wants to take control”). I’m not sure what to make of ‘Alison’, it’s punk styled noisy intro, with elements of Frank Turner’s best era (basically Million Dead’s vocals), but like it had been remixed by a noisy 90s new wave bans. ‘Creatures’ is more mellow again, with a trippy chorus and hard hitting bass which keeps the track together. The dynamics of the band are quite amazing, generally the band is quite distorted, and with soundscapes rather than thin tracks, but somehow, even through the clipped waves, there’s incredible mellow moments. This is reinforced in ‘Waves’, which still has distorted guitars layered together, but it’s still a good moment to chill out, before the noisy riff kicks in.
Musically, the intro and verse to ‘Disappear’ sounds like the kind of thing I could imagine Queens Of The Stone Age coming up with many years back, although the chorus changes the overall tone of the song, massively up beat and sounding great. Colossus, weirdly, is far from the most brutal song on the album, although it is fairly long with it’s huge, maybe slightly self-indulgent, outro, which even contains a bit of piano. Not What It Seems has a fuzzy rhythm section, met with a clean tone and a fast paced chorus.
Overall, the musical equivalent of that big blue monster from Monsters Inc; it’s really bloody fuzzy, like really, but it doesn’t have to be scary, and it means no harm to anyone. I doubt it’ll be attacking Radio 1′s A List any time soon, but I doubt the band care about this. It’s undoubtedly cool, and makes no excuse for what it is. Get it, and check out the list of tour dates.
Slice of coolness
Daddsy
