Here is salvo number 5 from Chicago’s Blood of the Wolf (with members of Withering Soul and Kommandant), and like 2022’s IV: The Declaration of War Eternal, and 2018’s II: Campaign of Extermination before it (I missed the EP III: Blood Legend), it’s a ripper of Midwest Blackened/death/war metal.

At 31 minutes, Indomitable does not fuck about, so neither will I with this review. The formula remains the same as prior efforts and is equally effective. The sound is still reminiscent of bands like Angelcorpse, Forest of Impaled, the UK’s Spearhead, with some beefier, mid-era Behemoth, and Hate thrown in. That’s to say, burly, blistering, militant black/death metal that delivers plenty of blood-rousing riffs and blood-pumping, stomping marches from start to finish.

No intros, no outros, no atmospherics, no keyboards (those are reserved for the band members’ other project, Withering Soul). Just face fucking savagery from start to finish.

From the immediate throttling of the opener ” Tempest of Purifying Fire” to the closing title track, the 31 minutes blaze by with ample heft and brimstone, all armed with Mike Koniglio’s perfectly vicious roar

Standouts are hard to pick, as all 8 songs deliver the goods (though nothing still matches “With Fire and a Thousand Flashing Blades” from part II), but certainly, I did keep coming back to “Oath of Supremacy” with its lurching mid section, and utterly icious “Flesh for the Warfather”, a more blistering, blacker track.

Another winner for Blood of the Wolf, who are clearly now a consistent standout on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions as well as the Midwest metal scene.

[Visit the band's website]

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