75%
Alpha Wolf’s star has risen meteorically since their last album four years ago through a combination of hard work and sheer dominance of will. They’ve toured relentlessly and curated their own festival twice, and album number three comes as they look down the barrel of a near-sold out national tour.
With album opener ‘Bring Back the Noise’, Alpha Wolf pay respect to the old school masters with pounding grooves and background scratching, making them sound like Slipknot from long ago when they were still hungry and relevant; ‘Double Edge Demise’ takes things forward with Lochie Keogh’s savage screaming, a groove-ridden breakdown and crushing heaviness into the outro. ‘Haunter’ steps up immediately to continue Alpha Wolf’s relentless, pummelling assault but the spidery synths and slightly slower pace make it stand out. Alpha Wolf’s tracks are short, but they pack a wallop. Their well-publicised collab with Ice-T, ‘Sucks 2 Suck’, pulls back on the percussive riff chaos to concentrate on the groove and the song is better for it, especially when Ice drops his vocal menace into the breakdown.
‘Whenever You’re Ready’ marks the halfway point with a synthy balladesque approach that shows their range; it’s not bad but it unnecessarily breaks the flow of the constant slamming of riffs and grooves. The tracks immediately following are rather non-descript and interchangeable pit fodder but things pick up again when ‘Feign’ finds a hook in its industrial groove. ‘Garden of Eyes’ and the title track are solid and with ‘Ambivalence’ the lads take a page from Fear Factory’s book by rounding things out with pianos, keys and ambience under Keogh’s cleans. It’s less out of place than ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ and a strong way to close.
While Half Living Things gets a little muddled and indistinguishable in the middle, overall this is a punishing set of tracks designed for maximum volume and maximum pit carnage. Let it rip.
