Wolfheart Skull Soldiers

The non-stopping machine of songwriting called Tuomas Saukkonen and his main band Wolfheart, return with another release, not a year ago after their fifth full-length album “Wolves Of Karelia”. Of course, this is not a “regular” release but an EP with two new and two old songs in different versions. It is also their second work with Vangelis Karzis (Full House Brew Crew, ex-Rotting Christ) on lead guitars.

The EP begins with “Skull Soldiers”, classic melodic death metal of the Finnish scene without many surprises. Brutal song, with mid-tempo rhythm and awesome groove. Towards the end, it has an amazing melodic lead and speeds up a bit, with consecutive guitar solos. Petro Solovey (Wolfanger) from Ukraine does guest vocals.

The next one, “Hereditary”, follows a different direction as it is much faster. There is also a mid-tempo moment and a nice acoustic break but aggression is the key element here. Also, I have to mention the impressive keyboards that play somewhat discreetly in the background and give a different atmosphere, both in this song and in the first one.

The third one is an acoustic version of “Aeon Of Cold” from the band’s second album, “Shadow World” (2015). Personally, the original performance is my all-time favorite song of Wolfheart. The sick riffing and epic refrain are one of the best Saukkonen has ever written. But this one is completely different. Only acoustic guitar and clean vocals by bassist Lauri Silvonen. A completely different result that is unfair to compare with the original.

The EP closes with “Reaper” from “Wolves Of Karelia”, taken from a live streaming that the band had done at the beginning of last year. Great performance of course, no surprise there. So, I find this EP quite “poor” in terms of material. It is intended only for their very dedicated fans and collector, since it is released only in 300 copies of vinyl and in no other form.

I do not know if the two new songs will be featured on the next album. If they are exclusive for this release, they could also include the two singles that didn’t appear in any album, “Fire And Ice” and the acoustic “The Black Light”, to have more material. The twenty minutes of total duration is not enough when we are talking about a band of this high quality. So, we’ll just have to wait for the next full-length album.