POWERWOLF - a name that makes the eyes of every disciple of traditional melodic heavy metal moist with joy and stands for a successful quintet that, after 15 years of steep ascent, basically needs no more extensive introduction. Last year, the anniversary was celebrated with a best-of compilation, which united the highlights of the six studio discs released to date - including both long-running hits from the early works and more recent hits from the gold-awarded records "Blessed & Possessed" and "The Sacrament Of Sin", such as the platinum hit single "Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend" - under one roof. Now, only about 12 months later, the probably most successful pack of the contemporary German metal fauna is ready with bared fangs for the next bloody foray. In the form of the programmatically titled "Call Of The Wild" work, which was once again a cooperation with the venerable producer duo Jens Bogren and Joost van den Broek in the Swedish Fascination Street Studios, will be out on July 16th, 2021, and mark a new chapter in the band's history. The album will feature beloved classic trademarks that are ready to reach out to veteran and freshly recruited POWERWOLF devotees alike, surprising and delighting them at every stage of this wild 11-track ride with stylistic advancements on an unprecedented scale! "Faster Than The Flame" - an opening beat that ignites the bonfire in purest POWERWOLF manner as a fiery distillation of such traditionally-fulminant album openers as "Amen & Attack" or "Fire & Forgive" - bears the distinctive signature of the creative minds around main songwriter Matthew Greywolf already in the first chords and impressively demonstrates, that the five-piece has undoubtedly succeeded in creating its very own, unmistakable sound over the course of the last one and a half decades. From this bomb-proof basis, the wolves subsequently dare to take the lead with tracks like the outrageously catchy "Dancing With The Dead" (a future classic in every decent headbanger party playlist!), the wonderfully heretical "Glaubenskraft" or Attila Dorn's epic-emotional moment "Alive Or Undead" - a power ballad at its absolute best, which finally cements the reputation of the frontman as an absolute exceptional bard - to enter new musical territory every minute, in order to conquer it for themselves almost in the same breath and turn it into one big firework of fresh influences. Lyrically, “Call Of The Wild” (besides the usual tongue-in-cheek heresy à la "Undress To Confess") is the hour of the mythical scary characters, who would all have good cards in the fight for the rank of the official band mascot: While "Beast Of Gévaudan" tells at top speed the story of a legendary predator that spread fear and terror in southern France in the middle of the 18th century, the stomping "Varcolac" pays homage to the eponymous wolfish demon of Romanian folklore, before "Blood For Blood (Faoladh)" evokes the Irish relative of the moon worshiper known to us as "Werewolf" in front of a fitting sound backdrop. In the final spurt, "Reverent Of Rats" puts a pompous exclamation mark behind a work that can justifiably be called the most multi-faceted of the band's history so far and which - beyond all promotional platitudes - plunges into the race as a hot contender for the top position among this year's metal releases !
