{"id":100074,"date":"2023-05-19T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=100074"},"modified":"2023-05-26T17:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T16:17:42","slug":"album-review-roadwolf-midnight-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-roadwolf-midnight-lightning\/","title":{"rendered":"ROADWOLF – Midnight Lightning (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROADWOLF
Midnight Lightning<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2023)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t seem to stumble across many Austrian metal bands so it\u2019s nice to experience the second full-length album from Roadwolf. These dudes began life over a decade ago so it\u2019s rather surprising that their debut album, Unchain The Wolf<\/em>, didn\u2019t emerge until 2021.<\/p>\n

What you get here is a rather infectious and nostalgic trip into the late 80s and early 90s circa a collection of sleaze-tinged tunes that bring to mind any number of bands ranging from AC\/DC, D.A.D., Guns N\u2019 Roses, Scorpions and the more obscure War Babies. It\u2019s catchy stuff indeed, driven by a thunderous bass but more so the gravelled vocals of Franz \u201cFranky\u201d Bauer.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, as each track swaggers by you get a strong air of familiarity but can\u2019t help nodding along. The brilliant title track is a smoking example of what this band so effortlessly creates. Throughout this opus there is that driving metal aesthetic, but one cannot overlook the grit which brings to mind a band like Spread Eagle who straddled the line of inventive sleaze and rugged metal.<\/p>\n

Roadwolf has found the perfect blend to produce such riveting metal. The enigmatic \u2018Supernatural\u2019 has a late 70s vibe, but elsewhere the band conjures so many sweet, melodic riffs alongside a more traditional and robust gallop such as on \u2018High Under Pressure\u2019 with its Iron Maiden-esque thunder. Meanwhile, \u2018Don\u2019t Deliver Us From Evil\u2019 shows the band as a darker force as they construct the perfect throwback anthem to a time when us kids were so desperate (naive) to join Satan\u2019s legion. And yet through all its obvious power, Midnight Lightning<\/em> is somehow caramel to the ears; a fluid and smooth transitioning through styles, but all condensed into a fiery, no-shits-given heavy rock arrogance. I\u2019m hooked.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROADWOLFMidnight Lightning Napalm (2023)Rating: 9\/10 I don\u2019t seem to stumble across many Austrian metal bands so it\u2019s nice to experience the second full-length album from Roadwolf. These dudes began life over a decade ago so it\u2019s rather surprising that their debut album, Unchain The Wolf, didn\u2019t emerge until 2021. What you get here is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-roadwolf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100074"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100085,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100074\/revisions\/100085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}