A review of Shewolff “We're All Gonna Fukkin' Die”

 

Shewolff

“We're All Gonna Fukkin' Die”

Dying Victims Prod. 2026

 

This album didn’t stand a chance with me in the beginning. Because, first of all, I can’t stand vampire themes. I don’t know, they’ve always seemed more cliché to me than zombies or other undead creatures. Secondly, a woman in metal, especially a female vocalist, is ninety percent of the time knockoff, or at best a cheap provocation. So why did I play this EP at all? Because I liked the title. Seemingly obvious, but reeking of punk from a mile away. And after just a few tracks, I got smacked in the face for my audacity with such dance-inducing black/punk that I was blown away. Shewolff’s music is banal, formulaic, and predictable. With your eyes closed, you can tell that there’s going to be a slight slowdown in a moment, followed by another rhythmic burst, that there will come a d-beat, and that the vocals will be shouted in a classic, aggressive way. Holy shit, how many bands have played this way over the decades, how many have copied tried-and-true formulas… But not every band could so perfectly imbue that hackneyed formula with the right feeling and melody. Because there’s no shortage of melody on “We’re All Gonna Fukkin’ Die.” Nor is there a lack of fire, that sense that the musicians recorded songs that were singing in their souls. And even the Transylvanian interludes, or the horror-movie samples, which serve here as a sort of ornament, a delicately applied addition, don’t disrupt my perception of the whole. On the contrary, they add a touch of genuine mystique to these compositions. And as for Ms. K. von Shewolff’s vocals, I’ll say just one thing. The chick screams her lungs out with incredible passion. And even if you can tell it’s a woman, it doesn’t bother me at all, in fact, I’d count her among those who really know how to scream in metal. This EP is a fantastic listen. One moment it sounds like Wolfpack, the next like Motörhead (the bass intro to the title track), total classics. Let me tell you, these twenty-five minutes are a total black-punk blast, material you can’t miss, and you must have it on your shelf.  I have nothing more to add.

- jesusatan