Wolfchant - A Pagan Storm
Wolfchant’s “A Pagan Storm” is very much a pagan group. There are slow harmony moments. The CD has no acoustic sections but there are several seconds through numerous tracks with slow picked notes. These are items that we expect to hear in a band that refers to itself as a pagan metal group. Wolfchant from Bavaria certainly does live up to its label. But then again, might there be some issues with this description if “pagan” is really not a sound but a lifestyle or mind-set. Do we really feel “pagan-ness” via the sound or is there something else? I mean look at Agalloch from the Northwestern United States. They also have chants and acoustic sections but they sound like no other group. One can label Agalloch as a pagan group but one does not hear as many “folk” parts of their songs as Wolfchant has in their work, especially “Midnight Gathering.”
I like Wolfchant’s CD but it is way too similar to Borknagar in its chanting then growl vocals and fast distorted guitars. The 5th track, “A Wolfchant From The Mountain Side,” jumps right into the fast groove, the way Borknagar does so well on Empiricism and Quintessence, from the second the track begins. One has to ask how music-art is created. Is it made from one’s obsession with assorted sounds on hears in one’s head or is it made by studying respected bands? If it is the second choice, and no doubt every band hears bands and steals, then where is the line between sounds in one’s head and robbery from other groups? Wolfchant skirts that line a little close to the derivative.
I like Wolfchant’s CD but it is way too similar to Borknagar in its chanting then growl vocals and fast distorted guitars. The 5th track, “A Wolfchant From The Mountain Side,” jumps right into the fast groove, the way Borknagar does so well on Empiricism and Quintessence, from the second the track begins. One has to ask how music-art is created. Is it made from one’s obsession with assorted sounds on hears in one’s head or is it made by studying respected bands? If it is the second choice, and no doubt every band hears bands and steals, then where is the line between sounds in one’s head and robbery from other groups? Wolfchant skirts that line a little close to the derivative.
1. Growing Storms
2. A Pagan Storm
3. The Path
4. Midnight Gathering
5. A Wolfchant From The Mountain Side
6. Guardians Of The Forest
7. Winter Hymn
8. Starkend Trunk Aus Feindes Schadel
9. Voran
10. Feuerbringer
11. The Axe, The Sword, The Wind And A Wolf
