After the 80’s melodic hard rock digression of the very brilliant ‘Empress’ album (2018), Be The Wolf are back where they belong. Starting from the title, their fourth effort marks a sort of return to the past. ‘Torino’, the band’s hometown, is not an ordinary city: it sticks to you and marks you forever, leaving a black shade in your soul. Ot on the 15th of January!
The trio retraces their entire artistic experience in a work full of shades and lights that encompasses the pop frenzy of the debut ‘Imago’, the torrid rock blues of the enigmatic ‘Rouge’ and the in-your-face attitude of the third album, offering overall its best release ever. Almost ten years later their beginnings, while on the outside everything is different and unrecognizable, nothing has changed inside of them: wolves are still hungry.
Undefeated is not an Iggy Pop cover and it’s not a metal track, but rather a poppy and catchy kind of a rocker. The sound is very smooth and commercial. This is straight forward radio minded stuff! April sounds like the blooming flowers in spring: popping and very colourful! Failures starts like a metal track but changes fast into a poppy track with a more softer sound and more polished. Teenage Mutants mixes a Jamaican/Senegal guitar sound with commercial rock/pop attitude. I would have expected a more brutal sound here. Stay Awake is a good jumping up and down track, with enough outbursts to keep you awake. Pretty Little Things has nothing to do with David Bowie, but it’s a cool and catchy fast rocker with great vocals and a drummer on fire! And no: Cinnamon has nothing to do with Neil Young, but has a funky rock and feelgood style. Towards the end it even gets a bluesy feel. One word for this album so far: Jamiroquai.Torino is a funky track, but it’s way too short as it feels as if it stops too early. Sorry Not Sorry (read that title somewhere?) starts with some metallic effects on the vocals until the sky clears up and the sun starts to shine. The guitar calm down moment sounds very old school blues. Dancing Rhino’s is the last track and rocks in a cool way with a very catchy feel and tons of energy. This is calling out with a blast and they should consider using this one as a single!
I wrote Jamiroquai because this guy has a great voice and used to mix tons of different styles and make some funcky shit out of it and started a party with each gig and this is what I feel here, but it a more rock minded base! So fella’s: keep up the great work!
