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Wolfpakk: Wolves Reign

Wolves Reign is the 4th album from Wolfpakk, the Melodic Metal All Star project formed by vocalist Mark Sweeney (ex-Crystal Ball) and guitarist/vocalist Michael Voss (Mad Max, Michael Schenker).Once again these long time musicians have gathered a slew of guest musicians to help them round out this great record of 80's themed Hard Rock/Metal.

With songwriting and arrangements at the core of this uniquely flavored project, the impressive guest stars make this record a killer. Lead crunchy single, "Blood Brothers", with its Native American theme and vibe features legendary Saxon frontman, Biff Byford on vocals and a killer guitar solo by the Floyd Rose Whammy Bar king, Brad Gillis of Night Ranger. TNT singer Tony Harnell delivers one of the best vocal performances on this entire outing on the moody and emotive, "Wolves Reign", while the guitar god George Lynch lays down not one, but two jaw dropping solos where you immediately know it's him. No one noodles around a guitar solo like George Lynch! Unmistakable!

What 80's type of record would be complete without an epic and a ballad? "Mother Earth" is your 8 minute epic that features Pretty Maids singer, Ronnie Atkins, and twists and turns with a Led Zep type of undertone and also has Evanescence guitarist, Jen Majura, handing the lead guitar chores. "Tomorrowland" has Tyketto vocalist, Danny Vaughn, showing his softer side on this big and booming late 80's like ballad and project co-founder Michael Voss delivers some tasty lead work.

Wolfpakk have a really solid and interesting record here with Wolves Reign. There are a lot of excellent performances throughout and the songs themselves are down right good. The fact that the duo of Voss and Sweeney have been able to continually round up quality names within the Hard Rock/Metal world for 4 albums now, is a great accomplishment all by itself. With ALL of the guest musicians on this album, it sounds very cohesive and like a band, that says a lot right there.

Vocals: Claus Lessmann (Ex-Bonfire), Biff Byford (Saxon), Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids), Mike Vescera (Ex-Loudness, Yngwie Malmsteen), Tony Harnell (TNT), Oliver Hartmann (Avantasia), Jioti Parcharidis (Victory), Steve Grimmett (Grim Reaper), Pasi Rantanen (Thunderstone), Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Andy Lickford (Killer), Simone Christinat (Legenda Aurea), Jean-Marc Viller (Callaway)

Bass: Rudy Sarzo (ex Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Dio), Marc Lynn (Gotthard), Volker Krawczak (Axel Rudi Pell), Michael Müller (Jaded Heart)

Guitars: Timo Somers (Delain), Brad Gillis (Night Ranger, Ex-Ozzy Osbourne), George Lynch (Ex-Dokken, Lynch Mob), Alen Brentini (Andreas Gabalier), Jen Majura (Evanescence), Chris Holmes (Ex-W.A.S.P.), Martin Rauber (Top4Tea)

Drums: Alex Holzwarth (Avantasia, Rhapsody Of Fire), Gereon Homann (Eat the Gun)


Track Listing
  1. Falling
  2. Run All Night
  3. Blood Brothers
  4. Wolves Reign
  5. No Remorse
  6. Inside The Animal Mind
  7. Scream Of The Hawk
  8. Commandments
  9. Mother Earth
  10. Tomorrowland
  11. I'm Onto You

Added: May 29th 2017
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1657
Language: english

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Wolfpakk: Wolves Reign
Posted by Pete Pardo, SoT Staff Writer on 2017-05-29 07:43:07
My Score:

Though there are many of these so called 'All Star Projects' these days, one that doesn't get mentioned as often is Wolfpakk, which is led by vocalist Mark Sweeney (ex-Crystal Ball) and guitarist/vocalist Michael Voss (Mad Max, Michael Schenker). Wolves Reign is the fourth installment, recently released on AFM Records, and features a fine cast of folks from the hard rock & metal scene, including legendary Saxon vocalist Biff Byford & Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis on the excellent "Blood Brothers", TNT's Tony Harnell & Dokken/Lynch Mob guitar god George Lynch on the atmospheric title track, and a slew of others like Rudy Sarzo, Ronnie Atkins, Steve Grimmett, Danny Vaughn, and more. Overall the songs are a mix of melodic rock, power metal, classic hard rock and a touch of prog, Voss & Sweeney leading the charge but allowing the guest singers and soloists plenty of room to shine. As you can tell by the song titles, the concept of the album centers around Native American Indian themes, and it's a nice change of pace compared to what we normally see with this type of project. Good stuff!



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