POWERWOLF - GERMANY

Return In Bloodred – 2005 – Metal Blade
Lupus Dei – 2007 – Metal Blade
Bible Of The Beast – 2009 – Metal Blade
Blood Of The Saints – 2011 – Metal Blade
Alive In The Night – 2012 – Metal Hammer
Preachers Of The Night – 2013 – Napalm
Blessed & Possessed – 2015 - Napalm
Live At Masters Of Rock – 2016 – Napalm
The Metal Mass – Live – 2016 – Napalm
Preaching At The Breeze – 2017 - Napalm
The Sacrament Of Sin – 2018 – Napalm
The Symphony Of Sin – 2020 – Napalm
Call Of The Wild – 2021 – Napalm
Wake Up The Wicked - 2024 - Napalm

Powerwolf image
  
 
Members
Vocals
Dragon’s Tongue, Meskalin, Red Aim>>ATTILA DORN [KARSTEN BRILL]>>Red Aim

Guitar
Red Aim, Flowing Tears>>MATTHEW GREYWOLF [BENJAMIN BUSS]>>Red Aim, Flowing Tears – Red Aim, Flowing Tears, Heavatar>>CHARLES GREYWOLF [DAVID VOGT]>>Red Aim, Flowing Tears, Heavatar


Bass
CHARLES GREYWOLF [DAVID VOGT]

Drum
Finishing Stroke, Flowing Tears, Mercury Tide, Red Aim>>Stefane Funebre [Stefan Gemballa]>>Red Aim, Flowing Tears – Gramoxone, Lites Over Fenix, Sun Caged, DVPLO, Subsignal, System Pilot, Zero Hour, Delphian>>ROEL VAN HELDEN>>Sun Caged, System Pilot, Zero Hour, Delphian


Keyboard
The Experience, Red Aim>>FALK MARIA SCHLEGEL>>Red Aim




History & Biography
Active in Saarland, the corner of Germany that is least metal, since 2004 and mostly bass-less, Powerwolf has a distinct image and is becoming more popular steadily. The German brothers recruited Romanian man Attila who knew little about heavy metal at a pub to be the band’s singer. The band was initially a project of stoner band Red Aim’s members. The band quickly obtained a recording contract with Metal Blade and issued its debut with Thomas Diener as a guest drummer. The group toured Europe with Candlemass in 2007. The group played at Wacken in 2008. Permanent drummer Stefane Funebre left in 2010. Thomas Diener returned for a year.

The first three albums were the subject of a box set called, Trinity In Black, The Holy Anthology Of Hymns For Praise Of Heavy Metal, issued by Cyclone Empire in 2011. No word if Borat was the project director. The group toured with Sabaton, Grave Digger and Skull Fist. Alive In The Night was distributed by Metal Hammer exclusively. The History Of Heresy I (2004 – 2008) and The History Of Heresy II (2009 – 2012) were more CD/DVD compilations. 2016 and 2017 saw the band try to beat Iron Maiden at its own game by exceeding the record for live albums following a bunch of compilations. Preaching At The Breeze was recorded at Summer Breeze festival in 2015. Metallum Nostrum from 2019 was a cover versions CD that was initially a bonus to Blessed & Possessed’s premium edition. Similarly, The Symphony Of Sin was a 2020 standalone version of a disc given away with The Sacrament Of Sin featuring orchestral versions of the album. A limited edition of The Sacrament… called Communio Lupatum also featured a disc of bands like Epica and Kadavar covering Powerwolf. The band’s 2020 tour of South America was cut short due to the pandemic. Powerwolf’s 2021 streaming show was being issued on video on July 8th 2022. It was called The Monumental Mass - A Cinematic Metal Event and out through Napalm Records. Missa Cantorem II was a self-cover version record with multiple guest singers like Tommy Johansson (Sabaton) and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian). Powerwolf played its first North American concerts in February 2023. The band was to perform in New York City on 23.02.2023 and in Montreal, Canada the day after. The Germans announced a new compilation album, entitled Interludium, through Napalm Records for April 7th, 2023. The CD was to feature six new studio songs, orchestral versions of songs and a disc of other bands covering Powerwolf. The band had a single called Sainted By The Storm in advance. The group extended its first two North American shows, slated for Montreal, Canada and New York City, USA in late February to more concerts in the USA for March. The band was conducting a mini-tour effectively now. There were multiple concerts booked for Germany for the autumn of 2023. Powerwolf announced a new album called Wake Up The Wicked for the summer of 2024. Powerwolf and Unleash The Archers were touring Canada and the USA in August and September 2024. Powerwolf Wolfsnächte 2024 tour with Hammerfall and Wind Rose opening was to take place across European arena in October 2024. Following song and album titles with the word 'Saint' in them the band released a "cinematic new video" for the song We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints. Not for the first time, the band topped the German and Austrian charts with Wake Up The Wicked. The band announced the Latin American Crusade 2025 for the spring and stated, "After our last trip to Latin America in 2020 and the great time we had there, we knew we had to come back!" The 2020 tour was cut short due to the pandemic. This was followed by Summer Of The Wicked 2025 tour of Europe.

Powerwolf is a hard working band with many releases. The band, like Japan’s Lovebites, often features wolves on its covers. Markus Pohl has been the live guitarist since 2016. Charles runs a studio called Greywolf. Flowing Tears featured Charles’ wife Helen Vogt. The band’s image and staged live shows are integral to Powerwolf. The band used Summer Breeze Festival 2023 together with ARTE Concert and the 0221 Mediaagentur to create a gigantic augmented reality wolf above the stage.

The band uses religious imagery and lyricism. Matthew calls The Bible his favourite book.


Reviews

POWERWOLF - CALL OF THE WILD – NAPALM  
Powerwolf are often called the German version of Sabaton. While they also heavily employ keyboards, other parallels are found in a recurring lyrical theme – for Sabaton, it is war, for Powerwolf it is vampires, werewolves, and the Catholic church. Interestingly, on this album the listener sometimes gets the impression that some members of the band could well be devout Catholics while at the same time criticizing the many negative aspects of this branch of Christianity. Some of it is satirical, too. Being from the German state of Saarland, a region that has had some successful artists in the pop genre (Nicole, Ingrid Peters, and most of all Sandra, who in Europe was almost as big as Madonna in the 1980s) but never a major metal act, the band quickly rose to international fame and now plays large venues throughout Europe. The album's opener, Faster Than The Flame, is a powerful anthem not unlike early Lordi, mixed with some elements of Demon. Beast Of Gevaudan has fresh breaks and a driving rhythm. It is eerily reminiscent of Sabaton. Dancing With The Dead could well be an Alice Cooper song, except for the vocals. The same can be said about Undress To Confess. The album's absolute highlight is the title track, which channels the best elements of Avantasia and transports them into a dense, soaring tune that truly stands out. The German lyrics in Glaubenskraft (‘Power of Faith’) are an experiment that does not really work. The song deals with sexual abuse in the Catholic church. What lowers the score is the presence of simple and repetitive rockers like Sermon Of Swords or Reverent Of Rats (Anvil would like these based on the titles alone!), which clearly are just fillers. Varcolac, Alive Or Undead, and the Irish folk-inspired Blood For Blood are mediocre. One of the album's strongest suits is the production. Unlike Sabaton's sometimes cheesy keyboards, real church organs were used here (not all the time though). Turned up to a high volume, few other current bands of this genre fill the room acoustically like Powerwolf do. Even the regular synths are more sinister and fit the music better than the often strangely upbeat tunes Sabaton tend to employ. If the next album gets rid of the fluff and turns a bit more aggressive, its score can be even higher. - Andreas Herzog


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