Alphawolf “Half Living Things”
‘You come for me, you better come better than that!’ Snarls Ice-T during Sucks 2 Suck. ‘It’s Alphawolf motherfucker!’ It certainly and quite frankly Ice-T could be talking about the new album Half Living Things, it fucking slaps.
An album that erupts with Bring Back The Noise, fiery, incendiary and combustable riffs, vocals torn from Lochie Keogh’s throat and an energy that will create a vortex of chaos in the pit.
Guitarist Scottie Simpson is quoted as saying this album has ‘considered the live show more than ever. Creating parts specifically for crowd involvement. These songs are built to ignite the stage’ and early in Double Edged Demise it becomes clear he means what he says. The song is aggressive, a real pit churning groove and that breakdown crushes with the force of a sledgehammer.
By the time the Sucks 2 Suck is unleashed you’ve already been rattled sonically from a battering ram of distorted guitars and pounding rhythms that when you realise who is coming up, a shudder of excitement engulfs you. Ice-T steps up to the plate and smashes a home run for the Tasmanians to the sound of that delicious breakdown heard across the world.
Latest release, Whenever You’re Ready is about losing someone close to you and walks the tightrope of a delicate touch while not losing its power, capped by a beauty of melody near the end.
While moulding a release a songs that could cause riots could be considered one dimensional, the band ultimately sound like they enjoy themselves as the vocals move between gutteral and clean in Pretty Boy or a good head bobbing riff in Feign.
Mangekyo shoots off at the speed of a firework that when the breakdown hits it’s orgasmic. It pounds and pounds and pounds. Well you get it and if you didn’t A Terrible Day For Rain is up next and it slams like Godzilla having a tantrum.
The whole album has elements that are new and daring for the band yet also everything they are great at, and attendees of their shows know that’s about exerting as much energy into the chemistry between band and crowd.
Half Living Things starts like a siren warning of what’s to come as the drum and bass really drive the song through the epic distortion of guitars.
The album finishes with Ambivalence which is a solemn ending yet epic, the song growing in sound and space from keys to cries of ‘I know there something wrong with me’.
We’re told that friends from assorted bands appear in the climax and crescendo of the song however who they may be will wait for a surprise on release day.
The album maybe called Half Living Things however there is nothing half arsed about this. To quote Ice-T again, ‘it’s Alphawolf motherfucker!’.
Album Review By Iain McCallum
