AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: OF WOLVES — “DEAD WAIT”

I discovered an album named Evolve by a Chicago band named Of Wolves in the summer of 2013, and it made a big impression, a lasting impression. As discussed in my recent interview of the band’s vocalist/guitarist Steve Sherwood, Of Wolves have been working on a new album that they’re hoping to complete and release before the end of this year, but in the meantime they have a brand new video for one of the songs from Evolve — “Dead Wait” — and we’re premiering it right here, right now.

As I attempted to explain in my review of Evolve, the album is an eclectic mix of music, but if there’s a unifying thread in the songs it’s the frustration and fury that drives them. Lyrically, Of Wolves have vented their anger at everything from churches to governments to pervasive greed to the treatment of Native Americans to the mass of their fellow citizens (aka “sheep”) who allow themselves to be brainwashed, duped, and distracted from protecting their own self-interests — and as you’ll see in a minute, they don’t mince words about it.

As I wrote before, “There’s a heavy dose of old-school, catchy-as-fuck punk rock chords in the music, especially in early tracks such as ‘Dead Wait’ and ‘Moot Point’, but even those songs include some vicious, beefy, clobbering, headbang-worthy riffs that throw a bunch of crust grit into the fray.” The vocals on Evolve are also all over the place, “but usually what you hear are high, yelping, barking proclamations — plus hardcore howls, demented screams, crazed chanting, and a bit of baying at the moon. I told you this was pissed-off music.”

UK-based animator John Howe has worked with Of Wolves to produce a video that vividly captures the red-hot indignation that comes through loud and clear in the words and the music of “Dead Wait”. Press play below and let it rampage through your skull.

And keep an eye out for an Of Wolves tour this summer … with a couple shows here and there through the Midwest as they wrap up the new album, starting with a March 12 date at Reggies in Chicago with Elder and Mos Generator (details here).

Evolve is available through iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp.

http://ofwolves.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ofWOLVES
https://www.facebook.com/johnhowemedia/
http://johnhowemedia.co.uk/