Wolfpakk-Wolfpakk

AFM Records
2011


Wolfpakk is the new project of guitarist Michael Voss (Silver, Demon Drive, Casanova, Bonfire, Mad Max) and vocalist Mark Sweeney (ex-Crystal Ball). Having always planned on working together on a project in one form or another things finally came together in 2009 when Voss was producing the 2nd solo album from Sweeny. After deciding to gather together musicians from all over the world (30 in fact!) Voss and Sweeney took the name of Wolfpakk and away they went never looking back. While the goal was to cater to each vocalist's particular style mostly this album falls into Iced Earth territory. The ten tracks were written by Voss and Sweeney so you can see where a common theme could emerge even with such a wide variety of musicians on board. Alongside the pair you have on vocals: Paul Di'Anno (ex-Iron Maiden), Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath), Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, Talisman), Rob Rock (Impelitteri), Mark Boals (ex- Yngwie Malmsteen), Tim "Ripper" Owens (ex-Judas Priest), Paul Shortino (ex-Quiet Riot), Mark Fox (ex-Shakra), Michaela Schober (Tanz der Vampire), Jean-Marc Viller (Callaway), Pearl and Molly Duncan. Quite an interesting cast of characters to be sure. Bass duties were handled by Tony Franklin (ex-Blue Murder, Robert Plant), Mat Sinner (Primal Fear), Matthias Rethmann (ex-LeeZ, Silver), Nils Middelhauve (Xandria), Neil Murray (Whitesnake)and Barend Courbois (Vengeance) while the guitarists (in addition to Voss) were Igor Gianola (U.D.O.), Marco Wriedt (Axxis), Andy Midgeley (Power Quest), Ira Black (ex-Vicious Rumors, Lizzy Borden), Torsten Koehne (Edens Curse), Doc Heyne (Biss), Tommy Denander (Dan Reed, Paul Stanley), Nadja Kossinskaja (Peter Maffay), Freddy Scherer (Gotthard), Olaf Lenk (At Vance) and George Solonos (Tommy Lee). Again an interesting mix although with no line-up listed per song who knows who plays what on which song. The promo dosn't give you that info so while its all good I'm not sure where to give proper dues. Anyway keyboards were handled with ease by Alessandro Delveccio (Glenn Hughes, Ian Paice), Ferdy Doernberg (Axel Rudi Pell, Rough Silk) while drummer Gereon Homann (of Eat the Gun fame) lays down the beat. So, with all that in mind Wolfpakk's debut album is full of great metal numbers like "Dark Horizons", "Lost" and "Slam Down The Hammer". "Let Me Die" and "Ride The Bullet" are just nice slabs of serious hard and heavy classic metal with a wonderful modern touch. Now mind you in no way will I say this album is groundbreaking or brilliant. But considering how these type of collections always seem to turn out a mess Wolfpakk rise above the normal and release a damn fine heavy metal platter.