Wolfheart - King of the North (2022)

The highly productive Tuomas Saukkonen is back with one more new release in 2022, now with his main band Wolfheart and “King of the North”. Featuring around 50 minutes of engaging and highly addictive music, this release continues his Melodic Metal explorations with plenty of melancholy and a few surprises here and there. Always keeping things interesting and very high quality, this release will surely please all of his fans.

Setting a very regal mood with “Skyforger”, the keyboards give way to signature melodic riffs and very well crafted headbanging-inducing tempo changes. Shaking things up a bit, “Ancestor” is a faster track with guest vocals from Jesse Leach of KSE fame, giving the song a different edge (no, not metalcore), thanks to the clean vocal arrangements and melodic passages. While “Knell” has more of a Gothic vibe due to its imposing atmospheric keyboards and slower paced sections.

Always keeping the listener guessing, “Desolated Land” features heavy dueling guitars alongside Before the Dawn-esque tempo changes and clean vocals. Moving to Modern Metal territories, “The King” is an interesting song with the band’s staple elements alongside some more ‘digestible’ melodic passages. One of the heaviest tracks in this release has to be the pummeling “Cold Flame”, which features Karl Sanders on guest vocals. Our favorite track has to be the melancholic “Headstones” and its very cool and engaging arrangements.

Closing with “Eternal Slumber”, we are left quite impressed as to how Tuomas Saukkonen keeps things fresh in Wolfheart and all his projects. While there are small overlaps, Tuomas’s personal style, each band always delivers unique and engaging music that can instantly be recognized. Further pushing the band’s sound into different territories, “King of the North” is a very well crafted and brilliantly executed release that no fan of Tuomas or the genre can miss.

Label: Napalm Records

Release: September 16th, 2022

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Country: Finland