2 Wolves
Shelter
Inverse Records
2014
Having been formed in 2011, this Finish band has already released its third album in a four-year period. Cases such as this are like a double-edge sword most of the times.
2 Wolves’ music is gothic metal which is embellished with lots of doom metal & atmospheric elements and a handful of death-doom touches every now and then. Their musical approach may remind you of some big gothic metal names from Finland and that’s rather understandable. Their music has a melancholic side but it doesn’t exhale depression and desolation. The clean vocals have the lion’s share in the album too. Even though their vocalist Ikka, left them after having started the work for the new album, it didn’t affect them that much as they didn’t spend time looking out for a replacement; the solution came within the band as Ossi (guitars) took over the clean vocals. The production is OK, even though the drums sound a bit “plastic” and “programmed” at times. Surely, it could have been better but it’s not so much of a problem.
Sometimes they sound more death-doom, others more like a doom metal band but mostly like a gothic metal one with clean vocals. Certainly, a better blending of all those styles could work on their own benefit at long last. “Shelter” is OK on the whole but still leaves a lot to be desired…
2 Wolves’ music is gothic metal which is embellished with lots of doom metal & atmospheric elements and a handful of death-doom touches every now and then. Their musical approach may remind you of some big gothic metal names from Finland and that’s rather understandable. Their music has a melancholic side but it doesn’t exhale depression and desolation. The clean vocals have the lion’s share in the album too. Even though their vocalist Ikka, left them after having started the work for the new album, it didn’t affect them that much as they didn’t spend time looking out for a replacement; the solution came within the band as Ossi (guitars) took over the clean vocals. The production is OK, even though the drums sound a bit “plastic” and “programmed” at times. Surely, it could have been better but it’s not so much of a problem.
Sometimes they sound more death-doom, others more like a doom metal band but mostly like a gothic metal one with clean vocals. Certainly, a better blending of all those styles could work on their own benefit at long last. “Shelter” is OK on the whole but still leaves a lot to be desired…