GREY WOLVES appreciation thread

[prelapsus]

Any thoughts on the new Grey Wolves / Vatican Shadow split LP? Been going back and forth on ordering this one ever since it was released.
While the promise of previously-unreleased mid-90s Wolves material and archival Vatican material from the project at its most industrial and least club-friendly is highly appealing, a part of me keeps wondering if, maybe, this stuff remained unreleased for as long as it did due to simply not meriting release.

I wasn't expecting much but I keep reaching for it... I'm not sure it would be the case if these tracks were released separately though. The VS/GW combination definitely makes it enticing for me. It also helps that the record is packaged beautifully. I love the artwork and presentation.

[Minus1]

Exit Wounds. 12 tracks. 62min.

I know this is a comp. Rare tracks? The cards don't tell me dick about when.

I keep droning on about vocal-heavy starts to GW albums. Here's another!

Oh. And then The Shining? Ok - shut the fuck up now. That one got old real fast. 😂 Tracks 1-2 isn't a promising start for me.

FreakAnimal did a detailed review of this. Mine will be...less detailed.

Tracks 3-4 corrects things, somewhat. Lofi industrial beats and dronage.

Ouch. Terrible edits. Scissors vice fade/segue?

This must be mostly old stuff. 80s even? It sounds very "primitive" compared to the albums I heard.

I don't think I'm feeling FA's sense of joy with this one.

New wave beats! I think Haircut 100 did this better.

But that's followed by grimy fucking thing. There's no flow here. I know - it's a comp.

Yeah, Massenmord is great. I'm thinking early Swans.

And Bodycount is wonderful. Eerie and mysterious, then ending with some pop tune.

Blacknoise is compelling - sounds like corrugated sheets being shaken.

This album might be great from tracks 8-12. It was a bumpy ride for me before then.

Mamas and Papas. Bufallo Springfield. I suppose a Manson reference earlier?

Jesse Jackson died today!

Nah...track 11 ruined it. Rock beats. Nondescript organ noodling. A dozen not very good 80s bands did this better. And it just won't fucking end.

There's some good stuff on this album, but equally, stuff that annoys me. And when those two extremes stand side by side it gets disorienting, in a bad way.

My little 5 album GW journey here summarized:

-2 albums are brilliant. Absolute keepers.
-2 albums are at least quite good, and I really need to hear them again, soon.
-1 album I don't care to ever play again. (Sorry FA.)

[re:evolution]

Any thoughts on the new Grey Wolves / Vatican Shadow split LP? Been going back and forth on ordering this one ever since it was released.
While the promise of previously-unreleased mid-90s Wolves material and archival Vatican material from the project at its most industrial and least club-friendly is highly appealing, a part of me keeps wondering if, maybe, this stuff remained unreleased for as long as it did due to simply not meriting release.

I wasn't expecting much but I keep reaching for it... I'm not sure it would be the case if these tracks were released separately though. The VS/GW combination definitely makes it enticing for me. It also helps that the record is packaged beautifully. I love the artwork and presentation.

I agree the presentation and packaging of the release, plus the combination of obscure material from the two projects makes this feel more than the sum of its parts. Individual releases would not have faired as well. So, I have enjoyed the few spins of this thus far, but not sure how much I would reach for this in future though. Perhaps consider it an archive type release than a main event?

[Into_The_Void]

Any thoughts on the new Grey Wolves / Vatican Shadow split LP? Been going back and forth on ordering this one ever since it was released.
While the promise of previously-unreleased mid-90s Wolves material and archival Vatican material from the project at its most industrial and least club-friendly is highly appealing, a part of me keeps wondering if, maybe, this stuff remained unreleased for as long as it did due to simply not meriting release.

I've ordered basically a blind-box and, as a big fan of old Vatican Shadow too, I was disappointed. Grey Wolves material is alright, but nothing special, as you said it wasn't particularly strong material. Vatican Shadow stuff is a bit boring, and it doesn't sound at all like it was an old recording. All in all, a good release (packaging is amazing as mentioned in another post), the music is fine, but for the price it costs I would have expected more.

[NightsAquarium]

Thanks for all the responses regarding the GW / VS split - all things considered, this does sound like something worth buying, albeit only as part of a larger order, and only when there is some extra money to spend on something less-than-essential. Will report back with my impressions when I come around to ordering and immersing into it.

On a Wolves-related note, did anyone here order and receive the Shock City LP / CS on Hospital? Any impressions?

Blood & Sand is up there in the highest echelon of 1990s industrial / post-industrial for me but SC's input there is not entirely clear to me (at least from the Cold Spring version of the album which is the only version I own - I know the OEC version is remixed and supposed to be substantially different) and the only other place I heard that project is the Noise War compilation, their track on which I remember more or less nothing about.

[JFKunt]

What years did Trevor Ward perform live with GW? I have only ever seen footage of David Padbury & CON-DOM

I wonder if 'Conspiracy International'(Con-Dom, Grey Wolves) was somehow different than the gigs played with DP??


Im looking for any scans of GW (and related) booklets or basically any printed / visual stuff. Seem unlikely this will ever be reprinted...