Review by Chad on January 10, 2020.

Not to be confused with Sweden's Wolf, a band that has been resurrecting this traditional style heavy metal that was heard throughout the early 80's from the U.K., Britain's Wolf is quite a bit more restrained in their performance and production on their one and only Edge of the World. An album to feature some really seductive album art, a memorable logo and a simple single-syllable moniker. It would seem some thought and direction had gone into the release thus far, I love the marketing that went behind it, if I were a collector, I would search high and low for a vinyl release even though I don't have a record player, nor am I actually crazy about the actual music. Thankfully, I'm not a collector as the vinyl print is circulating for around $40-$50 right now, and that's far too much to pay for music that doesn't quite go the whole nine yards to my ears. Wolf weren't quite as onboard with the whole scene going on right before them as say, Angel Witch, but in all honesty would sit next to your copy of said band's 1980 debut without a problem in the world due to the bizarre production and overall 60's pop appeal going on in the underpinnings of Edge of the World.

With a blend of dance and AOR, the moments such as "Heaven will Rock n' Roll" or "Red Lights" where wolf sound like they could've been nothing more than a Tank clone are the exceptions as opposed to the rule. That's fine in my book, it gives the album its own character, a character which doesn't exactly suit its album cover as well as Tank's Filth Hounds of Hades did, but I'm reminded about how this was the same era that brought us Witchfynde. The production here is really odd, as if it were recorded at two different studios, with the first couple of tracks coming across really muted. If you could imagine how a dense fog clouds your vision, that's what the production is for the majority of the album. Then "Heaven will Rock n' Roll" is way livelier and fuller of color, the contrast makes it explode out of album by comparison where everything else has a more relaxed feel to it. It might sound like I don't like the album's production, actually I think either way would've been fine, but would've preferred the whole album have a consistency to it. I personally think the muted, cloudy production actually works pretty well for what is ultimately a pop band. It's the same vibe that bands like Golden Earring and Blue Oyster Cult managed to perfect, two bands I'm sure Wolf were no doubt inspired by.

That becomes abundantly clear from the first track, leading off with the title-track, it's the kind of lighter pop rock that Diamond Head would try to break into on their sophomore release, "Borrowed Time". Granted, I think Wolf do it better, as Diamond Head have taken the brunt for selling-out by their second album. Wolf didn't even try to pretend like they were interested in anything but selling out from the get-go, at times they come across pretty well, other times they're doing the bare minimum to get by on tracks like "A Soul for the Devil" which reminds me of Diamond Head's apathetic epic "In the Heat of the Night", "Head Contact (Rock n' Rol)" fares no better, and it's here that I'm positive that their drummer just started learning to play. While their two guitarists usually offer very little outside of the most cliché licks that every beginning shredder should know. You know, the kind of mid-tempo licks that made Kirk Hammett's entire career.

Edge of the World is a sandwich that puts its best material on the opposite ends of the album with everything in between being boredom-inducing filler. The best the album has to offer still isn't all that strong, when it comes time for the guitarists to add some embellishments to fill in the spaces between the singer, it's usually noodling that doesn't evoke anything, even still, that's more than you'll get from whichever drummer happens to be on either track. The keyboards help to fortify Wolf's soundscape, making tracks like "Medicine Man" and the title track some of the best cuts off the album. "Highway Rider" happens to be my personal favorite from the album though, I think the masked production actually benefits the song in this case. It creates a similar atmosphere that I feel whenever I listen to very early atmospheric black metal from the 1990's, obviously without sounding anything like black metal. Sometimes the guitar even kind of fades into the background and becomes less audible as if someone was messing around with the volume knobs mid-performance.

Wolf are a different breed from your average artist from the NWOBHM scene, but not necessarily a band that anyone is missing out on from not having listened to them before. I'd say this album falls somewhere between the ever-ambitious Angel Witch and the coma-inducing pop drivel of "Borrowed Time". Sometimes those minimalist moments work out to create some interesting atmosphere, as is the case with "Shock Treatment", usually though I'm begging and pleading with the band to give me more of what they're already offering, an album that has a very cool sound to it, with a ton of potential to be more than what it was. Regardless, I'd still rock that album cover on a full-print t-shirt or a poster.

Superchard gets super hard for:
'Highway Rider'
'Shock Treatment'
'Medicine Man'

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 22, 2019.

Unpure's debut was released in 1995 and swam with the black metal movement. So, time was on its side, but we all know the old story of leaders and followers, of trailblazers and imitators, of good and of mediocre songs. The guitar lines of the opener create one of the most miserable melodies in the history of Swedish black metal and gives us a first hint that there could be a significant mismatch between the playtime of 48 minutes and the creative potential. The very fast drums are played without rhyme or reason as well, while the average vocals deliver the usual screaming. Maybe the band should rather concentrate on slow-moving pieces?

The next track, "Ashes with the Wind", gives the answer. No, they should not. Apart from its quite excessive length which stands in contrast to the song's improvable substance, the song begins very lame and boring. It grows due to a pretty malicious guitar line that carries the number through the second half, but in comparison with other genre records from Sweden, the song definitely does not boast with artistic boundlessness. And things don't get significantly better. More or less cheap and ineffective melodies appear again and again on this album. There exist some melancholic, relatively convincing sequences as well, but it is a fact that Unpure never reach the quality of bands such as Marduk, Setherial, Thy Primordial or further compatriots. Hellhammer has obviously been a great influence for the debutants, but their morbidity remains unique. The sometimes very stoically marching compositions of this self-titled work lack atmosphere and intensity. Not to mention any kind of unique selling points. Finally, the dudes neglect the value of catchiness in a very questionable manner. Of course, black metal is no style for conformists, but a certain degree of recognition value is always helpful.

If one is waiting for the train, for dinner or for the end of this album, 48 minutes can be a very long time. So I have more than enough time to focus on the production, but, to be honest, there is nothing special to report. It avoids major deficiencies, it has a dark flair and that's it. Everything wallows in mediocrity and cynical minds might say that this sound matches the quality of the songs perfectly. Sad but true, the longer the album lasts, the more the riffs fail to impress. The fact that the unripe horde repeats its mediocre lines again and again does not make things better, too. The same goes for the absolute absence of surprising twists and turns. But the worst is that great parts of the album lack aggression. Few tracks such as "Journey Inside" with its provocative riff after roughly one minute are just the exceptions that confirm the norm. Too little, too late. Unpure's debut will remain largely ignored.

Rating: 3.7 out of 10