WOLVERINE ‘The Window Purpose’
Elitist/Earache(2005)
Wolverine is one of those bands that have managed to make quite a big impression on me. Having made a review for the band's second full-length album "Cold Light of Monday" two years ago, I assumed that the promo that I quite recently received, would be of Wolverine's latest studio album, but that was not quite the case. Wolverine's first ever release was a demo called "Fervent Dream" - a recording that brought them in contact with DVS records, who, having realised the true potential of the band, offered them a contract. So, in early 2001, the Swedish sextet presented the world with their ambitious first full-length release, a ten-track album entitled "The Window Purpose". The rest, as they say, is history: Wolverine, quite reasonably, decided to move to a bigger label, namely Earache/Elitist and have been with them for the last three years.
Yes, but let's concentrate a little bit more on Wolverine's first studio album. I am one of those people who doesn't really need to have a good excuse in order to visit any of the big record stores here in London, and even though I am one of their most frequent customers, never once did I manage to come across a copy of "The Window Purpose". That's probably one of the main reasons that drove Elitist records to re-release a remastered version of that album, with brand new artwork, and one bonus track ("Again!") that was not included in the original release. Well, now that I finally managed to get my hands on a copy, the only thing that's left to see is how different it is compared to the "Cold Light of Monday".
Those of you who have read my review for the "Cold Light of Monday", will probably remember me mentioning that Wolverine's sound is hugely influenced by bands like Pain of Salvation and Anathema. In the case of "The Window Purpose", though, things are slightly different. Even though you will once again find that the works of Daniel Gildenlow's band have been the main source of inspiration for this young outfit, it is also quite evident that Wolverine were in favour of a heavier and more progressive Metal approach to music, similar to that of Dream Theater.
"The Window Purpose" is a concept album whose story is of a young boy who is driven to commit suicide, having gone through both physical and emotional abuse. That's how the story starts, but I do not intend to reveal more - one thing that I will say is that it is quite possible that you will end up being quite upset after reading the whole story. On a musical level, the band has decided to invest in lengthy compositions, which is not only daring, but also quite remarkable knowing that this is their debut album. I believe that in order to understand this album you will have to treat it as a unit, yet I believe that songs like "His Cold Touch" and "Leaving Yesterday" (a duet with Jamina Jansson on vocals) are the ones that do manage to stand out in their own right. It was also quite interesting to listen to some additional classic Death Metal vocals on both "Coma" and "Post Life" - courtesy of the band's drummer Marcus Losbjer. Even though I'm quite fond of Stefan Zell's vocals, I believe that he sometimes tries so hard to sound like Daniel Gildenlow, and that, in my opinion, has a negative result with respect to the atmosphere of the album. On the few occasions, like, for example, on "His Cold Touch", that he decides to test his own strength, the result is amazing.
The album is indeed quite unusual, but having listened to it quite a few times, I realised that I find it slightly more appealing than the "Cold Light of Monday" - that shouldn't be a problem, though, as Wolverine will easily attract a bigger audience with their "new" release. As for the future...well, it took Pain of Salvation three studio albums in order to release a masterpiece such as "The Perfect Element Pt.I", so let's see what Wolverine have in mind.
****
Review by John Stefanis
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