1104. Powerwolf / Metallum Nostrum. 2019. 4.5/5

From all accounts, this album was actually released as a bonus disc on the Japanese release of the Blessed & Possessed album back in 2015. While that must have been gold for the Japan fans, it’s also nice that it is getting a full release for the rest of the world to enjoy as well. Given that this is an album of cover version of Powerwolf’s favourite artists, it also acts as a window to the band’s influences in their music over the past fifteen years, and how that has helped shape their own music over that period.

Unlike the two Northern Kings albums I have reviewed recently which concentrated on redoing 1980’s pop songs, this tribute album is to songs and bands that have obviously heavily influenced the music that Powerwolf produce themselves. The song list is impressive and shows me that the members of the band grew up with much the bands that I loved at that era (though I would be about a decade older than these guys I would suggest). That to me is interesting because the base of their own sound absolutely comes from the 1980’s metal rather than the 1990’s or beyond, and that is where most of the songs reside.
Not only are all of the songs chosen here brilliant and, for the most part, also personal favourites of mine, the versions that Powerwolf have performed are carefully created and in no way denigrate the original versions. There is no attempt to fiddle with the perfection of the original tracks, instead they are given the tweaks that give them the Powerwolf metal sound as they should sound in the modern-day environment.
The album is bookended by two tracks from Judas Priest’s Painkiller – starting off with “A Touch of Evil” and concluding with “Night Crawler”. Both are terrific, maintaining the pace and intensity of the tracks while still adding that Powerwolf influence, especially vocally where they sound great. There is an absolutely cracking version of Running Wild’s “Conquistadores”, which for me betters the original by some margin, highlighted by Attila’s Dorn’s vocals. I don’t know the Chroming Rose song “Power and Glory”, but I do know I like this version so I should certainly track it down in the future if only to be able to compare it to this. Also, it is interesting to note the obvious vocal related differences in this cover of Amon Amarth’s “Gods of War Arise”, and is another great job done by the band as a whole. I am also impressed with Powerwolf’s work on Savatage’s “Edge of Thorns”, which retains all of the angst and emption of the original and is a fitting tribute to Criss Oliva’s memory.
If there is any doubt about the ability of the members of this band on their instruments, then the remainder fo the album should put that to rest. Not only have they chosen brilliant songs to pay tribute to but they have done a magnificent job in covering them. There aren’t too many bands who could pull off such loving and accurate representations of songs such as Gary Moore’s “Out on the Fields”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Shot in the Dark”, Black Sabbath’s “Headless Cross” and Iron Maiden’s “The Evil That Men Do”, but that is exactly what you get here. “Shot in the Dark” and “Headless Cross” especially for me are just brilliant. Like the other songs they don’t step too far from the template, but they still give it their own voice, and I really enjoy that of this album.

My age-old philosophy on tribute albums, I believe, still applies here – that no matter how good the versions of those songs that are performed here are, eventually you will drift back to the originals because they will always be the best. Still, several weeks after first listening to this album it is still in my rotation, and I am enjoying it as much as ever. Anyone who knows these songs and enjoys them should check it out, just to see what fans like you who are also pretty handy musicians play them like.

Best songs: “Touch of Evil”, “Conquistadores”, “Shot in the Dark”, “Headless Cross”.

Rating:  “All men are equal till the victory is won.”   4.5/5