WOLVERINE – Anomalies

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8.0

• Bands:
  WOLVERINE
• Duration: 00:51:24
• Available from: 02/06/2026
• Label:

• Music Theories Recordings

Streaming not yet available

The Swedish progressive metallers Wolverine seem to have decided that five years is the perfect cadence to offer new music to their fans: since the time of their third album, the dark “Still”, released way back in 2006, our band have, in fact, always come back to life punctually at every stroke of the clock.
This new “Anomalies” is no exception, the sixth full-length of their career, being launched on the Music Theories Recordings label exactly five years after the release in physical format of the splendid EP “A Darkened Sun”, released in 2021 (although the material had already been used in 2020 as the soundtrack to the homonymous and equally successful film short, which we highly recommend finding online).

Another thing that the band seems firmly intent on re-proposing with unchanged regularity is the intrinsic quality of its proposal, a characteristic that has distinguished it since its long-distance debut “A Window Purpose” in 2001 and which has accompanied it without any failures whatsoever through the numerous stylistic developments that have marked its artistic career.
Those who are already familiar with the project know very well that Wolverine have never been a band used to rest on their laurels; each of their works has seen them engaged in an ever deeper exploration of their own sonic and moody universe, without ever giving up their distinctive trademark, made of refined, dark, introspective and decidedly 'Nordic' progressive metal (in the Bergmanian sense of the term). Wanting to give some stylistic coordinates to listeners who had never crossed the path of these shy Scandinavian progsters, we could describe their music as a hypothetical cross between the darkest Pain Of Salvation and the milkiest and deepest Katatonia, without forgetting the more melancholic Porcupine Tree and the more shadowy Fates Warning, but the truth is that Wolverine have always managed to give their artistic path incontrovertible characteristics of uniqueness, despite starting from connotations absolutely recognizable sounds.

This new “Anomalies” is no exception, capable from the first notes of the opener “A Sudden Demise” to distance itself from the band's recent past and, at the same time, to make long-time fans feel 'at home' thanks to the peculiar 'Wolverine' atmosphere that immediately envelops the listener's synapses.
The guitar riff, heavy and angular bordering on djent, accompanied by synths from which all hope is banished, brings to mind the band's early works, but Stefan Zell's characterizing voice, accompanied by liquid clean guitars, brings everything back to more nuanced and reflective territories, in a song that makes the refined structuring and sudden emotional ups and downs its distinctive features.
Compared to “A Darkened Sun”, the atmospheres seem to have become more varied and less leaden, as well as the sound texture, which, although richly stratified as per tradition, is more agile and less oppressive, punctuated by moments that refer both to the warmth of Seventies prog (as happens in the splendid “My Solitary Foe”) and to the cold tensions of the more refined 80s new wave (as can be heard in the equally successful “Circuits” and “Nightfall”, songs in which our band demonstrate all their ability to be convincing and profound even in compositions with a more immediate, linear and “light” 'song form').

Electronic art rock peeks out in the rarefied and intense “This World And All Its Dazzling Lights” and “Automaton” (where the refined architectures woven by keyboardist Per Enriksson reign supreme), without failing to make its mark felt also in the varied and, at times, decidedly heavy “A Perfect Alignment”.
The snappy and composite “Losing Game” (thanks to a spectacular work by Jonas Jonsson on guitar, as well as the impeccable performance of the rhythm section composed of bassist Thomas Jansson and drummer Marcus Losbjer) brings everything back to more classically prog metal territories, while the intimate and touching “Scarlet Tide” has the task of closing, in a painfully tangible crescendo of spleen, the curtain on an album as courageous as it is successful, which in its often rarefied atmospheric research taken to extreme consequences is a bit reminiscent of the band's daring and controversial second full-length, that “Cold Light Of Monday” which had so divided the ranks of fans at the time of its release (all revised, however, with a decidedly more dynamic and less claustrophobic tone).

In this new work the Wolverines do not, perhaps, reach the pinnacles of the masterpiece “Machina Viva”, but they come damn close, thanks precisely to what, for some, could prove to be the biggest obstacle to overcome in the enjoyment of this work of art: its at times minimalist and nuanced approach which, if on the one hand it will make it necessary to indulge in numerous listens to be able to grasp its most intimate essence, on the other hand it will reveal itself as an authentic treasure chest of vivid and pure emotions.
As per tradition for these five Swedish progsters, “Anomalies” turns out to be, in fact, an authentic sensorial journey, even before a mere collection of songs; an album that reiterates and underlines the uniqueness of Wolverine's proposal, confirming them at the top of the most moody and intimate prog scene with a disarming inevitability.