Metal Underground.com

Apart from the haters, there are two kinds of Powerwolf fans. First, there are those who may have just recently heard them…finding “Blood of the Saints” to be that incredibly catchy power metal masterpiece that pokes fun at the Catholic church with a witty repartee, but who also desire them to “do something different.” Then there are those who want them to be the loveable stalwarts that make them the Gamma Ray of ecclesiastical gibing, who also hail from the land of Werewolfenstein….or Germany, whichever is more realistic. Oh please, ridicule fans who laud the band for the “typical tedious power metal hymns" while you attempt to inhibit your own unconquerable headbangery. “Preachers of the Night” is here and so is another year of Christian equivoque…it is never late…nor is it early. It arrives precisely when the world needs it…or so an old wizard once told me.

Having been tempted by “Amen & Attack” – a typical Powerwolf anthem fans expect - the bloodthirsty barbarians step it up with a howling attack as if a “super moon” had risen in the metal sky. Longtime fans of the band will simply eat up the silver bullets blasting forth with the usual punchy and precise choruses of “Coleus Sanctus,” “In the Name of God,” and “Cardinal Sin.” As fetching as a wolf on a human femur ”Secrets of the Sacristy,” “Lust for Blood,” and the gleaming “Nochnoi Dozor” are impossible to resist. "Lust for Blood" has so much in common with Running Wild it sounds like a "canined" track from "Pile of Skulls."

Fans more “a-were” of the band’s history know that Powerwolf albums are not based only on pure unadulterated speed. There are always mid-paced canticles that break up the tempo, many of which turn out to be the best numbers on any given release. True to transformation, “Kruezfeuer” and “Sacred & Wild” are two of the album’s best, the latter my own favorite. Though it appears that “Last of the Living Dead” clocks in at a lengthy 7:43, it does so only if you make it all the way through nearly four minutes of wind, rain, thunder and yep….you guessed it…howling.

The ministers of papal lycanthropy play with as much precision and finite perfection as always. Twin wolf brothers Charles & Matthew Greywolf’s bass and guitar sounds have that “it factor,” one that has been trademarked since they were just pups. Attila Dorn commands with his “clear Rock ‘N’ Rolf” style, as if the metal pirate himself lowered his face to drink from the transfiguring water from the footprint of a wolf. Mixed at the dungeon setting of Gothenburg at Studio Fredman, the album glistens with the blood of freshly torn flesh.

One thing that never grows old is the stellar church organ keyboard work of Falk Maria Schlegel, who single-handedly transmogrifies the songs into the pontifical imagery of the band itself. Astute wolf-fearing followers who purchased the latest issue of Rock Hard magazine (or the upcoming deluxe edition), which contains the band’s pre-release “The Rockhard Sacrament” EP, will recognize what Schlegel did to “wolfify” the cover of Black Sabbath’s “Headless Cross” (the best cover I have heard…ever).

So, if you suddenly feel the pain of a metamorphosis…or if your mirror reflects a meeting of the eyebrows, curved elongated fingernails, or a low set of pointed ears, it’s not a full moon or your TV blasting an “Underworld” marathon. It’s just symptoms of a vicious desire to listen to the metal wolves, who present another platter of perfect “Cat-olic” puns, one that doesn’t pose anything extraordinarily new….and that’s what makes it so glorious. We ask this through the father, the son and the holy wolf: Amen......ATTACK!