Wolves Like Us - "Late Love" (CD)
"Late Love" track listing:
1. Burns Like A Paper Rose
2. Deathless
3. Sin After Sin
4. Old Dirty Paranoia
5. Secret Handshakes
6. Shiver In The Heat
7. We Speak In Tongues
8. Gone To Dust
9. My Enemy (Afghan Whigs cover)
10. To Whore With Foreign Gods
Reviewed by EdgeoftheWorld on August 9, 2011
Unmistakably heavy, but with an almost poppy bounce to it, "Late Love" by Wolves Like Us almost defies categorization. The bass, drums and vocals all have heavy metal heft, while the guitars have a pop sound at times that remind one of U2's the Edge.
A lot of the credit for keeping a coherent sound throughout the album has to go to drummer Jonas Thire, who seamlessly alternates between heavy metal thunder and pop grooves on tracks like the first single, "Deathless" and "Gone To Dust."
By far, the band's best track is the infectious "Secret Handshakes," with its galloping drums and near-singalong chorus of "Seal our fates with secret handshakes." That said, the spacey, near-eight-minute closer, "To Whore With Foreign Gods" goes into some screamy, straight-up heavy territory that serves as a bit of a palate-cleanser after all of the pop-hybrid stuff earlier on the album.
The disc's biggest misfire is the straight-ahead Motorhead-style thrasher "Shiver In The Heat," which lacks the kind of varied approach that benefits the rest of the disc.
Wolves Like Us separate themselves from the rest of the pack with a sound blending pop-tinged guitars with heavy metal thunder on the low end. The end result is that "Late Love" is one of the most original-sounding discs I've heard this year.
Highs: "Deathless," "Gone To Dust" and "Secret Handshakes."
Lows: The straight-ahead "Shiver In The Heat."
Bottom line: A unique pop-tinged hard-rocker.
Get more info including news, reviews, interviews, links, etc. on our Wolves Like Us band page.
