Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf has been a special little three year project of Mr. Adam Riser who has done time majority of time in Love is Red and Betrayed and former vocalist of Donny Brooke and current Snake Eyes Bo Thompson over the last few years. I have luckily been an acquaintance with Adam for quite some years from my time playing in my old band Reaction and all the shows we used to play with Love is Red. At first when I heard he was forming something new I would have guessed it might have sounded something reminiscent to Love is Red but this new group is the total opposite and it totally blew me away when he thankfully sent me over this new E.P. which will soon be released by the San Diego based Words Of War Records.

The band consist of Nick Trujillo (Snake Eyes, ex-Donnybrook) on drums, Mark Choiniere (Throwdown) on guitar, and Martin Stewart (Terror, Donnybrook) on bass. Obviously some great musicians that have been churning out bands for a few years in California and this e.p is some of the best work they have done. "Hallucinogenic Fate" is the perfect mix of heavy hitting hardcore with a slight, but not over done, sludgy riffed out metal influence to the fold of the songs. Now, majority of band that try to add a southern metal influence or strong riffs to their songs usual fail in my opinion, they either try to hard with boring and repetitive riffs or over do the southern metal thing which makes it just cheesy but this E.P is a breathe of fresh hair for Hardcore. The first song Heavy Test (head nod too Integrity's vocal test intro) is a 1.50 second of creepy feedback with a slow sludged out slamming intro riff straight out of Crowbar's "Broken Glass" album that perfectly sets the feel for the 3 amazing songs that are too follow.

The rest of the songs have a basic heavy hardcore song structure but they are very well written and blend well together with the slight Entombed influenced riffs. The riffs don't take over the songs which is nice, there's perfectly placed and have a natural progression so they don't come off generic or over done. There's even a nasty sounding solo on the track Fearless that really grabbed my attention.The chord progression and riffs are very smooth and aren't repeated and over used like a lot of bands that try to pull of this style. Everything from each bass note too each single guitar chord fit well over the hard hitting drumming which is mid pace through most of the tracks. The songs aren't ultra fast but they aren't ultra slow and doom sounding which people may think when someone throws out the southern metal word. This band isn't influenced too much from southern metal bands, just a slight vibe,but more of just powerful and straight forward hardcore. I think they fall in more of a Cleveland or maybe even a little later Breakdown New York sound than something straight out of the south. There isn't any cheesy or over done gang vocals and Thompson sounds his best and most pissed off on this recording then anything he has previously done, there is even some nice vocal layering and fade outs that will keep your attention on the vocals.

There are a few very powerful and intense buildups during some of the songs that have a give off a little dark Integrity feel to them, which thrown in totally brings out the sludgy breakdown riffs they are pulling off that makes this E.P. a total whoop fest. The songs structure is powerful and the E.P. just has a smooth and heavy vibe too it which help these songs just pummel your face into the ground, Adam and company don't rip off anything that are influenced bye that's for sure, they know how to right a great song and the quick four tracks will keep your attention. This isn't a band that is going too transcend the boundaries of hardcore and there isn't flashy or any attitude too this band, its just good quality hardcore through and through with great song writing. The only down fall to this is there isn't enough songs but on a marketing stance they made had a good idea because I can't wait to hear more. All of the members of the band are very busy with their full time bands but I hope Lone Wolf will become a stronger priority because they deserve it with putting out a E.P this good.

Pre-orders will be announced for this release soon
Check out some info/songs at: www.myspace.com/allhaillonewolf